Release Me, Let Me Go
7 messages in this thread
Doug,
You and John have asked me for a release that would really work. I have
drafted a release, indemnity agreement, and covenant not to sue, from the
perspective of the land owner. I will upload it today to the forum's library.
It is as protective as I could make it, without making it unconscionable.
Because it's drafted by the mineral collector, any ambiguities would be
resolved against the drafter. The indemnification addresses the issue of minors
who might void a release after they reach their majority.
Any thoughts, suggestions, comments, criticisms, or corrections would be
welcome.
Nathan
Wonderful! I'll run it past my lawyer. 🙂 Good thing she's in the office
next door, and I can pay with a smile.
Hi, Nathan–
Thanks! Your RELEAS.TXT in Science forum library geo section (12) looks
promising. Folks, this is a release of liability that could be offered to a
landowner who is leery of allowing rockhounds to collect on his/her/its
property.
However, it has some binary stuff at the start that tells me it is a
WordPerfect document rather than a simple ASCII text file – some people will
not be able to easily open it. If you mean to upload a revised version, use
WordPerfect's "Text Out" function and choose "DOS text" as the output mode
(that's WP 5.1; I do not know about other versions).
It also started out in the middle, "ed desires to enter the property described
below…", which is puzzling – having the end lopped off might be a symptom of
uploading as "ASCII" when it is a binary file, but I cannot figure what causes
a beginning to be removed.
In using it, people might overlook filling in the owner's name in one or
another [] section – it might help if there were underscore characters there to
grab the eye when printed. If you tried to use WP's underline feature, that
would get lost in an ASCII text file; you have to type the "_" characters.
I think I see your answer to the minor suing after reaching majority, in that
the signer assumes that responsibility. A few notes on things like this and
your remark about ambiguities favoring the landowner might help the rockhound
persuade the owner if you add them after the signature block (they won't have
this thread to look at when they download, typically).
I wonder if we could get one or more liability insurers to bless this or some
similar release? Some sort of non-binding recommendation from them might help
"sell" this to an owner.
–Doug
Yes, I couldn't parse the file, either, and I'm usually adept at deciphering
file formats. I'd blame the uploader. 🙂
—> file formats. I'd blame the uploader
Yeah, sue him! 😎
I use Wordstar 2.0 for Windows which has proven pretty adept at converting most
other wordprocessor's files. I figure to wait a few days while Nathan has a
chance to re-upload before we lynch him…er I mean before I try a download.
(g)
-Russ
Doug,
Thanks for the ideas and suggestions. I will download the file and see how
it resembles what I uploaded. I thought about the WP vs. ASCII problem, but
I'll wait now to incorporate everyone's suggestions before changing formats. I
understand that there would be some formatting codes stuck in there, but I
can't explain why it might begin in the middle.
As for insurers and their blessings–claims agents will send the document to
their inhouse lawyers, who will say if you don't want claims, then don't let
anyone in on the property. I'm not sure that they will provide meaningful
legal advice, or that they will give an "advisory opinion," on the merits of a
release before it's tested in court. The most important point, I believe, is
that the landowner (and his personal cousel) feel assured.
Nathan
Nathan…
In case it's any help, I've discoverd that a version of Wordstar I have for DOS
puts special codes for soft hyphens and soft spaces for justified text. When I
strip the file to ASCII I've learned the hard way that the soft hyphens retain
*special code* status.
-Russ