Grammar nerd are a committed league who often struggle the proficient fight in the Leslie Townes Hope of seeing their victories spelled out on the page . But every once in a while , the consequences of proper punctuation leap from 2 - five hundred print into 3 - 500 courtroom dramatic event . ( InsertLaw & Ordersound force . )
In 2014 , Andrea Cammelleri was ticketed for a pretty run - of - the - pulverisation offense : leave her pickup truck truck park on a street for too long . Specifically , the village ordination in West Jefferson , Ohio said it was against the natural law to park “ any motor vehicle camper , trailer , farm implement and/or non - motorised vehicle ” longer than 24 hours .
That language is passably mown and dry , but upon airless reading , you might mark something suspicious . Cammelleri did . At her run , the defendant argued“the ordination did not apply because the language interdict a motor fomite motor home from being parked on the street for an protracted period of fourth dimension . ”
Cammelleri does n’t have a “ motor vehicle motor home ” because , well , what the heck is a motor vehicle motor home ? The ordination should have take “ motor vehicle , camper … ”
The court argue that anyone reading the ordination would get it on that it was a typo and simply miss a comma butterfly . Cammelleri was convict , but she was n’t done with her punctuation mark drive . Shefiled an appeal .
This time , the scales of justice went the way the grammar gods would desire . In his ruling , 12th District Court of Appeals Judge Robert A. Hendricksonwrote , “ By utilizing rules of grammar and engage the vernacular meaning of terms , ' motor vehicle camping bus ' has a clear definition that does not produce an absurd outcome . If the village desires a unlike indication , it should amend the ordinance and insert a comma between the phrase ‘ motor vehicle ’ and the word ‘ camping bus . ’ ”
Whether it was a clever magic trick to get out of a pesky parking citation , or an earnest quest to compensate this human beings ’s comma crimes , Cammelleri illustrated why proper punctuation should n’t be just a thing of style — it should be the law of the commonwealth .
