"Punctuation Matters. At the Heart of This Case Is the Placement of a Comma"

Thanks to Wikipedia for the koala photo. From Remus Enterprises 1, LLC v. Breece, decided Thursday by the D.C. Court of Appeals (Judge Shanker, joined by Judges Easterly and Ruiz): Punctuation matters. At the heart of this case is the placement of a comma. Appellant Remus Enterprises 1, LLC ("Remus 2023") sued appellee Quinn Breece in Superior Court asserting tort claims arising out of Remus 2023's alleged ownership of, and desire to sell, a parcel of property located at 3308 16th Street, NE, in Washington, D.C. But a consent judgment in another case established that a different entity with a name containing all the same words and letters but a differently placed comma—Remus Enterprises, 1 LLC ("Remus 2018")—was the real owner of the property. Because Remus 2023 does not have standing to sue based on a different entity's property interest, we conclude that the trial court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over the case, and we affirm the trial court's dismissal of Remus 2023's complaint, although on grounds different from those relied on by the trial court…. The consent judgment in this case intended to conclusively settle the issue of who purchased, owned, and contracted to sell the 16th Street property. First,