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jonasbn (1153)

jonasbn
  reversethis-{gro.napc} {ta} {nbsanoj}
http://e-diot.dk/
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Perl Programmer located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Active member of Copenhagen Perl Mongers.

Author of:

  • Business::DK::CPR
  • Business::DK::CVR
  • Business::DK::PO
  • Business::OnlinePayment::CashCow
  • Date::Holidays
  • Date::Holidays::Abstract
  • Date::Holidays::Super
  • Date::Pregnancy
  • Games::Bingo
  • Games::Bingo::Bot
  • Games::Bingo::Print
  • Module::Info::File
  • Module::Template::Setup
  • Test::Timer

and maintainer of:

  • Tie::Tools
  • XML::Conf
  • Workflow

Journal of jonasbn (1153)

Saturday June 30, 2007
07:03 AM

EWEIRDCONTRACT

[ #33646 ]

Just a minor follow-up on my little contract adventure. When reading through it and the Force Majeure section I fell over the term. "Act of god", I am not a religious person and I found it somewhat weird to use this term in a general consulting contract.

This puzzled and amused me, since in my opinion an act of god could be anything, since it would be a question of religion.

But I went to Wikipedia for advice and there it was. Apparently the term: "Act of god" is often used in contract law, but could just as easily be translated to "Act of a Nature".

Anyway somebody made a movie named: "The Man Who Sewed God", the movie raises the question: "Who actually decides if an event is an act of God or not, and who defines the nature of these acts? Churches or Insurance companies?"

I am not lawyer, but I found it a bit alarming and amusing that this term was in a contract I am negotiating with a client.


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  • I really hope this isn't why you walked out. I have never, ever seen a contract of any length that didn't include an "act of god" clause. It's meant to cover all kinds of random stuff: Soviet invasion, earthquake, ghostly infestation, massive plagues, total protonic reversal, and anything else that is clearly beyond anyone's reasonable prediction and control. The phrase is just an artifact.
    --
    rjbs
    • No, no, no, the general terms and the hourly rate did simply not match up.

      I understand it is a common term, I am agnostic, but still I live in a dominant Christian culture, but I am just amazed that these artifacts, as you call them, still seem to be influencing everything.

      • Hey, I'm a fundamentalist, and I've always thought that phrase was odd and a possible legal hindrance.

        I mean, what if your idea of God and mine don't match up? What if my religion states we can't know the mind of God and so we'd never know what is and is not an act of God? What if my religion states only I can know that? :)

        I understand that it's intended to mean "random occurrences that are just so far outside of what could've been foreseen at the time of this contract that this contract cannot possib

        --
        J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
  • I like the wider idea that you can be excused even if it is not God who acted against you, but the government leaning on you, or a strike of workers, or the dog eating your homework. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_majeure [wikipedia.org]
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