Warranties
Warranties in Contracts Made by Forward Market Design LLC
This instrument is published on the internet to state terms included in all contracts for the sale of goods or services to which Forward Market Design is or may become a party. Its purpose is to provide equal protection to all parties with whom it deals and to assure the prompt and inexpensive resolution of any dispute that might arise in the course of its dealings.
Equal Protection of the Law. These terms are expressed to assure Equal Protection of the Law to all persons or firms dealing with Forward Market Design. It and all such persons or firms are by this instrument assured an equal opportunity to assert without needless cost or delay any rights arising out of any contract to which Forward Market Design is a party. These terms displace any contrary terms in any printed form that may have been or may in the future be circulated by it or by any person or firm to whom it has provided or will provide services or from whom it has acquired or will acquire goods or services except those contrary terms that have been or are in the future specifically acknowledged by the signature of the person or firm against whom they are invoked. Specifically, these terms displace any terms to which any party with whom it has made or will make a contract might be said to have assented by a failure to correct unwelcome terms prescribed in printed tickets, circulars, health care forms, package inserts, bill enclosures, notes transmitted electronically as the supposed terms of a contract assented to by clicks on a computer screen, or other such instruments presented by providers or clients having no reasonable expectation that the terms in such instruments would be read, understood, and assented to by the party to whom they were or will be presented if that party were well advised of their significance, and which had, have, or would have the purported effect of abrogating procedural rights necessary or useful to a party seeking at some future time to enforce a contract or to recover compensation for harm caused by a breach of warranty by a provider of goods or services.
Standard Warranty of Fair Value. Accordingly, it is hereby agreed between Forward Market Design and any person purchasing good or services from Forward Market Design or any person or firm who is providing, has provided, or will provide him with goods or services that no warranty other than a warranty of general merchantability has been or will be made by the provider unless such warranty is expressed in writing and signed by that provider, but that (1) the provider is fully responsible for all direct or indirect consequences if the goods or services provided are not fair average quality; (2) if it is determined that there has been a breach of the warranty of merchantability, the provider will reimburse the full costs of the client’s or the consumer’s legal expenses including attorneys’ fees (and fees for services necessary to collect fees) and reasonable compensation for the wasted time of the client or consumer; and (3) the provider will pay punitive damages in a deterrent amount if the harmful defect is shown to be the result of willful neglect or malice on the part of the provider or its officers or employees, and malice will be presumed if the provider unreasonably delays to cure a breach.
Prompt and Inexpensive Due Process of Law. It is further agreed that any claim by any party arising out of any contract to which Forward Market Design is a party will be amiably settled if possible. A provider failing promptly to make a fair offer to settle a complaint by the client or consumer agrees to pay additional punitive damages sufficient to deter such neglect or malice in future transactions. If a dispute is not amiably settled, it will be resolved by litigation in a court of the state of Maryland sitting in Montgomery County. Any client of or purchaser from, or provider of goods or services to, Forward Market Design hereby appoints Catherine Cramton, 901 Highland Ave, Del Mar, CA 92014, USA, as its agent for the receipt of service of process in any action brought by Forward Market Design arising out of a contract with it, and Forward Market Design hereby agrees that it is equally subject to service of process at the same address. In any action arising out of a contract with Forward Market Design, each party agrees to make, at his, her, or its own expense, full and prompt disclosure to the other of any possible evidence that might assist an adversary in proving a claim or defense including evidence bearing on the state of mind of any alleged malefactor and to forego any further presentation of a claim or defense upon failure to make such disclosure. It is further agreed that, unless both parties waive the right to trial by jury after a claim has been made, the dispute will be resolved by a jury of twelve persons selected in accordance with Maryland law. In the interest of economy and dispatch, there shall be no examination of prospective jurors or any peremptory challenges to the participation as a juror of any resident of Montgomery County. In the interest of economy, it is further agreed that the jury’s verdict shall be (like an arbitral award) the final disposition of the dispute and shall not be reviewed by any court. Also to avoid cost and delay, neither party will seek or accept summary judgment or any other form of pretrial disposition, or the direction of a verdict by a judge. It is further agreed that both parties retain their rights to aggregate any claim arising between them with other like claims and to participate in a class action against the other party and that such an aggregation of claims or class action shall be tried by jury in the same forum and on the same efficient terms as are here specified. Finally, to prevent needless cost and delay, it is agreed that any attorney representing a party in an action arising out of a contract made by Forward Market Design who seeks in court to challenge the validity of any of these Equal Protection or Due Process terms on any ground not provided herein shall be forthwith dismissed from the representation and shall not be replaced.
Freedom to Decline Equal Protection and Due Process. While these terms have been drafted to assure Equal Protection and Due Process of Law to all parties to all contracts with Forward Market Design, Forward Market Design fully respects the persons with whom it does business and would never impose these or any other terms on any person or firm who timely informs him that such terms may be disadvantageous to themselves. Any provider or client receiving this instrument is invited by certified mail to express concern that they may not be equally protected by these terms or may not receive the process that is due, and to decline these terms at any time within thirty days after the date on which this document is published at his website or is otherwise brought to the attention of a provider or client. Failure to decline them in a timely manner will, however, be an acknowledgment by that provider or client that these terms are equally beneficial to both parties to their past, present or future agreement with Forward Market Design and are assented to as provisions of those contracts. Any provider or client who declines these rights thereby waives the right to insist upon any terms previously or in the future recorded in a printed ticket, circular, package insert, health care form, bill enclosure, electronic notation, or similar instrument that he, she, or it may have dispatched to or received, or may in the future dispatch to or receive from, Forward Market Design, so that both parties will then be in the legal position they would have been in if no fine print terms giving procedural advantage to one party over the other had even been or ever will be written by either to be imposed on the other.