Masonry Magazine August 1964 Page. 5
Peer Pedersen
Legal Counsel
Mason Contractors
Association of America
From the earliest days of English common law to the present, the construction industry has provided the courts with more than its share of litigation. The variety of cases is almost unbelievable; they involve everything from the construction of a building on the wrong lot to the collapse of the roof of a newly constructed structure.
I am sure that at least today, this great amount of litigation does not suggest that contractors, and particularly mason contractors, are a litigious group who enjoy providing business for lawyers, but rather that the continuing post-war building boom has produced ever increasing problems of a new and different nature which the parties have failed to consider and the courts are required to resolve.
By far the greatest proportion of law suites involving construction contractors arises because of the absence of written contracts or the inadequacy of contractual provisions covering the matters is dispute. Candidly, in my experience, I have not found any industry or field of business in which matters involving such large sums of money and tremendous liability exposure are dealt with by oral agreements or printed form contracts which are not tailored to fit the particular situation. Believe me, I am not trying to promote business for my colleagues, but I could do you no greater service today than to convince you not just of the advisability but of the necessity in today's business climate of seeing to it that your business contractual relations are evidenced by written agreements which specifically cover not only the basic items of agreement but in addition make provision for all the foreseeable problems that might arise. In law, as in medicine, the old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure holds true. A well-drawn contract cannot only save you costly litigation expense, it can assure you of that which no lawyer can do-and that is winning the case. In my practice, I am almost daily confronted with the difficult task of breaking the news to some very unhappy contractors that they stand to lose substantial sums because their contracts do not cover the matter in dispute, or that they have no written evidence of their claims.
The Law
Of Contracts
In Relation
To Mason
Contractors
By
Peer Pedersen
This address was presented by Mr. Pedersen at the Summer Executive Board Meeting of the Mason Contractors Association of America held during late July at Hershey, Pa. Read this and the concluding section next month and place both in your business files for further reference.
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