I'm getting the following error in IE8:

                object doesn't support this property or method

The file in questions is a .js file, and the line in question is the following:
It states that it's that first line, character 2.

1. $('#pSearchView')
2.         .height(startY - calcExtraLen('pSearchView', 'vert'))
3.         .width(contentWidth - calcExtraLen('pSearchView', 'hor'));

I didn't write the program, so I'm a little lost. Can anyone see anything obvious?  It's a problem in IE8 only, and causes the site not to render properly, with blank areas.