One of the most viewed Ruminations postings is the one titled: “Why So Much Confusion About Holdover Tenants?” It can be seen by clicking: HERE. Today, we are going to illustrate the concept and, at the same time, demonstrate why there is a difference between understanding the individual words of a document, a law or whatever and understanding what they mean in light of words you have never read. Those “words” are in countless court decisions.

That last sentence needs some explaining. We’ll let the following dialog do the work for us:

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”

Today, we’ll look at an unpublished August 6, 2014 decision by the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Supreme Court. It is known as: WA Golf Company, LLC v. Armored, Inc. and can be seen by clicking HERE. [Read more…]