Sample Agreements
On the following pages you’ll find three agreements reached at actual mediations, with the disputants’ names and other identifying information deleted or changed. These documents were selected both to show what an agreement might look like and to illustrate the broad range of disputes that can be mediated successfully.
1. Landlord/Tenant Dispute
In this case, the landlord of a residential apartment building threatened to sue a former tenant over property that was missing from the apartment after the tenant moved out. The missing items included doorknobs, curtains, and lamps. In mediation, the parties agreed on a list of items that the tenant would either return or pay for by a set date. For his part, the landlord agreed to return the tenant’s collection of tapes, records, and CDs that the tenant had inadvertently left in the basement. The agreement was drafted with reciprocal promises to give it the effect of a legal contract. (For information on how to make a contract legally enforceable, see Section D, below.)
In the Matter of Mediation Between:
Judith Stevens
and SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
Seymour Wilson (Wilson Prop. Mangmt, Inc.)
Case Number: C-111-94
Under the Rules and Procedures of The Center for Dispute Settlement, Inc., Judith Stevens and Seymour Wilson (for Wilson Property Management, Inc.) agree that the following provisions fully resolve all the claims they submitted to mediation on July 3, 2004.
1. Ms. Judith Stevens, formerly a tenant at Bedford Street Apartments, owned by Wilson Property Management, Inc., will return no later than July 22, 2004 to Mr. Seymour Wilson of Wilson Property Management, Inc., the following articles: two doorknobs, door plate, kitchen curtains and rod, bath and back bedroom rods, four draw drape rods, one extension cord, and two ice trays. Ms. Stevens will telephone Mr. Wilson at 555-3321 to arrange a convenient time and place for delivery.
2. Ms. Stevens will pay a total of $174 to Wilson Property Management, Inc., for the following items that were broken or are missing from the apartment:
$26.00 Security lock
43.00 Kitchen light fixture
24.00 Bedroom light fixture
66.00 Miniblinds from study
15.00 Smoke alarm
$174.00 Total to be paid
Ms. Stevens will pay the $174 as follows: $40 per month beginning August, 2004 by money order mailed by the 10th of the month to: Mr. Wilson, 280 South Hollywood Drive, Apt. 1, Rochester, NY 14620. The fourth and final monthly payment will be for the amount of $54.00.
3. Mr. Wilson will consider that all possible legal claims that he might have against Ms. Stevens concerning her being a tenant at the Bedford Street Apartments have been settled if she delivers to him as promised all the items in paragraph l and also pays him the amounts in paragraph 2.
4. Upon satisfactory return of all items named above and payment of all amounts due, Mr. Wilson will release the tape, record, and CD collection belonging to Ms. Stevens, and arrange with her a date and time when she can collect these items from the offices of Wilson Property Management, Inc.
If any dispute arises out of this agreement or its performance that Ms. Stevens or Mr. Wilson cannot resolve themselves, they will try to settle the dispute by mediation through the Center for Dispute Settlement, Inc.
Judih Stcuens
Judith Stevens
Seymour WiLson
Seymour Wilson
Eva tMarιe Peterson
Mediator
2. Neighborhood Dispute
The next dispute concerns two families, the Bertlesons and the McKays, who are next-door neighbors. Each family has small children. At one time the families were quite friendly, but during the course of one summer tension developed between them. Helen and Arthur McKay complained that Melinda Bertleson’s three children (she is a single mother) often came into their yard uninvited to use their play equipment, and left clothes, food wrappers, toys, and other items in the yard, and also that the cars of Ms.
Bertleson’s house guests often blocked their driveway. For her part, Ms. Bertleson complained that the McKays had made verbal threats against her and her visitors. When the McKays finally called the police to have parked cars removed from the end of their driveway, the responding officer encouraged both sides to consider mediation at the local community mediation center. They agreed, and in one afternoon worked out the following settlement. The agreement was drafted by the McKays and Ms. Bertleson with the help of the mediator, and they signed it before leaving the mediation center.In the Matter of Mediation Between:
Melinda Bertleson
and SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
Helen and Arthur McKay
Case Number: C-352-94
Under the Rules and Procedures of The Center for Dispute Settlement, Inc., Melinda Bertleson and Helen and Arthur McKay agree that the following provisions constitute full satisfaction of all claims submitted to Mediation on July 3, 2004.
1. Helen and Arthur McKay agree that Ms. Bertleson’s children and their friends can play on the swing set and other play equipment in the McKays’ backyard at any time they wish as long as they are supervised by an adult.
2. Melinda Bertleson agrees that her children and their friends will clean up after themselves when they play in the McKays’ yard, and that she will be responsible for seeing that they do.
3. Ms. Bertleson further agrees to tell her visitors not to park in or block the McKays’ driveway, and that she will be responsible for seeing that they do not block the driveway.
4. Mr. and Mrs. McKay agree not to make any verbal threats to Ms.
Bertleson or her visitors and to contact her directly in person or by phone if they have any complaints about the conduct of guests at her home.
5. Ms. Bertleson and Mr. and Mrs. McKay also agree that if future disputes arise between them they will try to resolve them by talking together, but if they are unable to do so they will return to mediation at the Center for Dispute Settlement, Inc.
^Melinda ^BeitleSan
Melinda Bertleson
Helen McKay
Arthur McKay
Arthur McKay
Signature of Mediator
Mediator
3. Contract Dispute
This next dispute arose when a large manufacturing company, Unity Corp., claimed that machine parts made for it by a smaller firm, JHL, Inc., were defective and refused further delivery of parts halfway through the contract. JHL, Inc., on the other hand, claimed the parts conformed perfectly to the specifications in the purchase order, and threatened to sue Unity for $2 million ($1.8 million for the actual cost to JHL of making the rejected parts, plus $200,000 in anticipated profits if JHL had been allowed to complete the contract). But JHL was reluctant to file the lawsuit because Unity was a major customer; winning the lawsuit while losing Unity’s business would not be in JHL’s long-term interest. The two companies agreed to mediate.
The mediation took about four days over a period of three weeks. Although Unity still would not agree to accept the disputed parts, it did agree to pay two-thirds of what it cost JHL to manufacture them (about $1.2 million). Half of this amount would be in a lump sum payment and the balance would be in the form of a purchase by Unity of some excess equipment owned by JHL (but virtually worthless to JHL), which Unity could use at one of its own manufacturing sites. In addition, the two companies agreed to try to continue doing business together. Specifically, Unity agreed to give JHL a contract to do additional work; if the new work was done successfully, the profit on it would about equal the $200,000 that JHL had anticipated but not realized on the original job.
A brief outline of the agreement’s main points was drafted by the principals of each company and the mediator before the last mediation session concluded; the final version was signed a few weeks later, after attorneys for both sides reviewed it and worked out the details.
A noteworthy aspect of this agreement is the total absence of faultfinding in the contract that gave rise to their dispute.
The agreement is entirely forward-looking and is designed to preserve the both companies’ business relationship to their mutual advantage.In the Matter of Mediation Between:
Unity Corp.
and SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
JHL, Inc.
Case Number: 12345-05
1. The Unity Corp. agrees to award to JHL, Inc., within six months from the signing of a final mediation agreement, a contract or contracts for the manufacture of unspecified machine parts with a net profit margin to JHL upon successful completion of not less than $200,000. Counsel for the parties will draft a document further describing the parties’ rights and obligations concerning this agreement for future manufacturing work.
2. Unity will pay to JHL, Inc., not later than 30 days from the signing of a final mediation agreement, the amount of $600,000 to offset part of the costs incurred by JHL, Inc., to manufacture machine parts under the disputed contract that was the subject of this mediation. Full or partial payments of this amount made after the 30-day period will include interest at the rate of 9% per year.
3. As further offset against JHL’s manufacturing costs, Unity will purchase from JHL three Model X7 Impurities Testers for a total price of $600,000. Delivery will be made FOB Unity’s East Ridge facility within 60 days after a final mediation agreement is signed. Unity will pay JHL in full for this equipment within 30 days of satisfactory delivery.
4. JHL agrees that when the steps outlined above in items 1-3 are completed, it will consider all issues concerning the disputed contract to have been settled, and will not in the future bring any legal actions against Unity concerning that contract.
5. The parties will prepare and exchange papers releasing each other from all present legal claims when the steps outlined above in items 1-3 are completed.
JHL, INC.
By. Vic Lentz
UNITY CORP.
By.
Hank Smith
"MnSig Longitockatgs
Mediator
D.