PERFORMANCE BONDS AND GUARANTEES: CONSTRUCTION OWNERS AND PROFESSIONALS BEWARE
Performance bonds and guarantees have been the subject of considerable litigation in recent years in not only the United Kingdom but also some other common law jurisdictions. The aim of this research is to identify the issues most commonly in dispute and the legal principles governing their resolution. Possession of knowledge of the issues and principle should alert the construction and engineering industries and their legal advisers to the matters that need serious attention in the drafting and negotiation of these instruments. Clarity in the legal principles should also contribute to a reduction in litigation. The issues identified include whether an instrument is a conditional or an on-demand bond, the effect of failure on the part of the beneficiary to give notices, availability of an injunction to restrain the surety from paying after a call has been made by the beneficiary, availability of an injunction to restrain a beneficiary from receiving payment after a demand has been made, availability of an injunction to restrain a beneficiary from making claim, availability of a Mareva injunction to freeze the fruits of a call, meanings of certain phrases used in the instruments, and a duty to account for proceeds of a call. The principles governing their resolution were also identified. Particular attention must be paid to any ambiguity whether a surety is liable is always construed in the surety's favor, and prejudicial conduct by the beneficiary releases the surety unless the instrument provides expressly to the contrary.
Bond Requirements on State-Owned Forest Land in the Western United States
State forestry agencies typically require forestry contractors to furnish several types of bonds before beginning work on state land. Required bonds often include: performance bonds that help ensure contract provisions are followed satisfactorily, bid bonds that guarantee follow-through by the winning contractor, and payment bonds that guarantee payment for timber before cutting. Much variety exists both in the types of bonds that are required and the form of payment that state forestry agencies will accept. However, no single source for this information exists in the literature. Such a resource can help assist state foresters when determining bond requirements for their own state, as well as providing a comparison with other state policies. To meet this need, a literature review and telephone survey of state forestry agencies was conducted. The literature review revealed varying statutory requirements and an absence of research on bonding practices in the forestry industry. Survey respondents reported performance bond requirements, when in effect, ranging from 5 % to 100 % of the contract price in service contracts, and from 5 % to 20 % in timber sale contracts. Bid guarantees, if required by state agencies, range from 2 % to 10 % of the contract price. The unique conditions involved in forest management require flexibility when it comes to bonding policies to avoid burdening agencies and contractors with unnecessary constraints.
UNIVERSAL LOCALLY COMPACT SCATTERED SPACES
If δ is an ordinal, we denote by C(δ) the class of all cardinal sequences of length δ of locally compact scattered (in short: LCS) spaces. If λ is an infinite cardinal, we write Cλ(δ) = {s ∈ C(δ) : s(0) = λ = min[s(ζ) : ζ < δ]}. An LCS space X is called Cλ(δ)-universal if SEQ(X) ∈ Cλ(δ), and for each sequence s ∈ Cλ(δ) there is an open subspace Y of X with SEQ(Y ) = s. We show that • there is a Cω(ω1)-universal LCS space, • under CH there is a Cω(δ)-universal LCS space for every ordinal δ < ω2, • under GCH for every infinite cardinal λ and every ordinal δ < ω2, there is a Cλ(δ)-universal LCS space, • there may exist a Cω(ω2)-universal LCS space. As a consequence, we obtain that it is consistent that 2 = ω2 and Cω(ω2) is large as possible, i.e. Cω(ω2) = {s ∈ 2{ω, ω1, ω2} : s(0) = ω}. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. 54A25, 06E05, 54G12, 03E35.