Last antecedent rule

Last antecedent rule

The last antecedent rule is a doctrine of interpretation of a statute, by which "Referential and qualifying phrases, where no contrary intention appears, refer solely to the last antecedent." [ [http://adamsdrafting.com/downloads/g-and-m-082807.pdf Behind the Scenes of the Comma Dispute by Kenneth A. Adams (Globe and Mail, Aug. 28, 2007)] ] The rule is typically bound by "common sense" [ [http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/last+antecedent+rule The Free Dictionary] ] and is flexible enough to avoid application that "would involve an absurdity, do violence to the plain intent of the language, or if the context for other reason requires a deviation from the rule." [ [http://www.kscourts.org/cases-and-opinions/opinions/supct/1999/19990122/80523.htm Link v. Hays (Kan. 1998)] ] .

A more formulaic approach to the rule requires, "Evidence that a qualifying phrase is supposed to apply to all antecedents instead of only to the immediately preceding one may be found in the fact that it is separated from the antecedents by a comma." [ [http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/A115303.htm Service Employees Int'l Union Local 503 v. Oregon (Or. App. 2002)] ] Kenneth A. Adams, author of "A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting", has criticized this canon of construction as being applied inconsistently and contrary to the guidance of many manuals of style:

Manuals of style recognize that the comma is used to indicate a slight break in a sentence. But according to the Rule of the Last Antecedent, adding a comma after a series of antecedents not only doesn't sever the modifier from the last noun or phrase in the series, it in fact operates remotely on all the antecedents, binding them to the modifier. Nothing in the general literature on punctuation suggests such a mechanism. [ [http://adamsdrafting.com/downloads/g-and-m-082807.pdf Behind the Scenes of the Comma Dispute by Kenneth A. Adams (Globe and Mail, Aug. 28, 2007)] ]

The last antecedent rule is also applied to contract interpretation.

References

ee also

Rules of law

*Four corners

Grammar rules

*Possessive antecedent
*Syntax


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