Why grammar matters: Missing Oxford comma may cost US company millions

New York

A CLASS-ACTION lawsuit about overtime pay for truck drivers hinged entirely on a debate that has bitterly divided friends, families and foes: the dreaded - or totally necessary - Oxford comma, perhaps the most polarising of punctuation marks.

What ensued in the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals, and in a 29-page court decision handed down last week, was an exercise in high-stakes grammar pedantry that could cost a dairy company in Portland, Maine an estimated US$10 million.