Clerical error
A clerical error is an error on the part of an office worker, often a secretary or personal assistant. The phrase may also be used as an excuse to deflect blame away from specific individuals, such as high-powered executives, and instead redirect it to the more anonymous clerical staff.
A clerical error in a legal document is called a scrivener's error.
In law
There is a considerable body of case law concerning the proper treatment of a scrivener's error.[lower-alpha 1] For example, where the parties to a contract make an oral agreement that, when reduced to a writing, is mistranscribed, the aggrieved party is entitled to reformation so that the writing corresponds to the oral agreement.[1]
A scrivener's error can be grounds for an appellate court to remand a decision back to the trial court. For example, in Ortiz v. State of Florida,[2] Ortiz had been convicted of possession of less than 20 g of marijuana, a misdemeanor.[3] However, Ortiz was mistakenly adjudicated guilty of a felony for the count of marijuana possession. The appellate court held that "we must remand the case to the trial court to correct a scrivener's error."
In some circumstances, courts can also correct scrivener's errors found in primary legislation.[4]
Examples
Over 18 minutes of the Watergate tapes were supposedly erased by Richard Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, in a claimed clerical error. Some writers have suggested that this may have changed the course of American history.[5][6]
See also
Notes
- ↑ See Barkelew v. Barkelew (1946, Cal App) 73 Cal App 2d 76, 166 P2d 57, for example.
References
- ↑ Flemings Fundamentals of Law/Farhod Azarbaydjani
- ↑ 600 So. 2d 530 (Fla. App. 3 DCA 1992)
- ↑ 893.13(1)(g) Fla. Stat. (1989)
- ↑ David M Sollors, "War on Error: The Scrivener's Error Doctrine and Textual Criticism: Confronting Errors in Statutes and Literary Texts", Santa Clara Law Review, 2009
- ↑ Time (magazine) , December 10, 1973
- ↑ Sullivan, Patricia (January 24, 2005). "Rose Mary Woods Dies; Loyal Nixon Secretary". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30678-2005Jan23.html. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
 |  |
