Re: How An Extra Comma Made A Company Lose $2.13 Million...!
Why do people discount English and Grammar in classrooms? Hmmmm....this should be mandatory reading in every classroom above third grade, IMHO.
The lawyer who drew up that contract should have to pay the extra money since his/her incompetence is the reason for the assessment. I don't know Canadian law but it seems to me that some form of adjustment would be called for somewhere along the line. Perhaps they should've tried for arbitration, rather than a court ruling directly, to resolve the dispute. Might've worked out better for everyone.
Here's a lesson for everyone besides the obvious. Whenever you're reading a contract for proofing purposes read it aloud and emphasize all the commas and other punctuation, in the form of hesitations and accentuation, so the REAL meaning of the sentence stands out, not the ASSUMED meaning as it would when read silently. Had this been done, the error would've been caught before signing as the strangeness of the sentence structure would've caused most folks to check it again.
Live and learn...then laugh your way home, folks!
Sandi Bowman
Last edited by Sandi Bowman : October 13, 2006 at 07:36 PM.
Reason: addition
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