PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A Maine dairy company has settled a lawsuit over an overtime dispute that was the subject of a ruling hinging on the use of the Oxford comma. 
 
 Drivers with Oakhurst Dairy filed the lawsuit in 2014 seeking more than $10 million. Court documents filed Thursday show that they settled for $5 million. 
 
 A federal appeals court decided to keep the drivers' lawsuit alive last year. The suit concerned an exemption from Maine's overtime law that says it doesn't apply to "canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of" foods. 
 
 The disagreement stemmed from the fact there's no Oxford, or serial, comma in the "packing for shipment or distribution" part. The drivers said the words referred to the activity of packing and shipping, but they don't do any packing. 

 It appears the Maine Legislature has learned its lesson, at least. It revised the disputed state law last year to end ambiguity by adding new punctuation — but not in the way you might be thinking. 
 
 The case began in 2014, when three truck drivers sued the dairy for what they said was four years’ worth of overtime pay they had been denied. Maine law requires time-and-a-half pay for each hour worked after 40 hours, but it carved out exemptions for: 
 
 The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of: (1) Agricultural produce; (2) Meat and fish products; and (3) Perishable foods. 
 
 What followed the last comma in the first sentence was the crux of the matter: “packing for shipment or distribution of.” The court ruled that it was not clear whether the law exempted the distribution of the three categories that followed, or if it exempted packing for the shipment or distribution of them. 
 
 Had there been a comma after “shipment,” the meaning would have been clear. David G. Webbert, a lawyer who represented the drivers, stated it plainly in an interview in March: “That comma would have sunk our ship.” 
 
 Since then, the Maine Legislature addressed the punctuation problem. Here’s how it reads now: 
 
 The canning; processing; preserving; freezing; drying; marketing; storing; packing for shipment; or distributing of: (1) Agricultural produce; (2) Meat and fish products; and (3) Perishable foods. 
 
 So now we get to replace Oxford comma pedantry with semicolon pedantry. The change, sponsored by Senator Andre Cushing, was among dozens of legislative tweaks signed by the governor in June. 
 
 “It clarifies the intent of the legislature, to conform with federal law, that the distribution of certain products is exempt from the provisions governing overtime pay,” according to a summary of the changes. “It amends the 1995 law by reordering the series of exempt tasks for the purpose of eliminating any perceived ambiguity.”
– Maine dairy drivers who picked a court fight over grammar have an extra $5 million to show for their geekery, reports the AP. Oakhurst Dairy drivers settled their 2014 lawsuit last week for a relatively big pay day—they had originally sought $10 million—after a federal appeals court decided to keep the drivers' lawsuit alive last year. The suit concerned an exemption from Maine's overtime law that says it doesn't apply to "canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of" foods. An Oxford comma after "shipment" would have clarified the intent of the law, or as the plaintiffs' lawyer said earlier, "That comma would have sunk our ship." The state legislature has since amended the language to read thusly: "The canning; processing; preserving; freezing; drying; marketing; storing; packing for shipment; or distributing of," which the New York Times notes gives us the chance "to replace Oxford comma pedantry with semicolon pedantry." But alas, notes the Times, "the resolution means there will be no ruling from the land’s highest courts on whether the Oxford comma—the often-skipped second comma in a series like “A, B, and C”—is an unnecessary nuisance or a sacred defender of clarity, as its fans and detractors endlessly debate." (More on the case here.)