b'Agreement Review is a Key Membership Benefit Overtheof years, onethe significant benefits of membershipinMR.CAhasbeenthe"We have had success with numerous manufacturers publishedreviewof manufacturer Applicator Agreements.MRCA\'s Legalwhere they agreed to make changes to the contractors Counsel, Spencer Fane Britt and Brownebenefit." of KansasCity, Missouri,reviewsthe Agreements,andwherenecessary, negotiates revisions for your benefit.country."Wehavehadsuccesswithservice,eitherbecausetheydon\'t know numerous manufacturers where they agreedabout it, or have forgotten it exists. It\'s a tremendous benefit which has resultedto make changes to the contractor\'s benefit," inimprovedrelationsbetweenroofingsaysAliceJ.Fischer,anattorney withSpencer Fane regularly publishes its findings contractorsandmaterials manufacturersSpencerFane.AndyetmanyMR.CAinitsApplicatorAgreementsUpdate. notonlyintheMidwest,but acrossthemembersdon\'ttakeadvantageof this"Typically," reads the most recent edition of thisreport,"the Agreement hasbeen prepared by the manufacturer. Its provisions A (Tongue-in-Cheek) Editorialaregenerallydraftedwiththeprimary purposeof protecting the manufacturer. Shoestring RoofingCo.As legal counsel for MR.CA, our goal in c/o General DeliveryreviewingtheseAgreements,and U.S.A.correspondingwiththeappropriate manufacturers, is to obtain revisions needed Smith & Jones, Architeksto protect the rightsroofing contractors." of Minneapolis,Minnesota There are two provisions in virtually all RE: The Roofin Job we DoneApplicator Agreements which areconcern of to the roofing contractor\'s interest.Toe This to Jet you know we ain\'t spending no more money on that roof.I figgeredfirst works toward "limiting the contractor\'s something like this would happen when I first sent my men and they tore offliability toatwo-yearperiod" following the wrong roof.thefinaldate of theroofing application, explains Fischer."We feel that leaks(crThem plans you made weren\'t too good and you must have known it all the time,otherproblems)shouldshowupwithi1-,_; because you got somebody in your office to write a whole dam book to tell whattwo weathering cycles."Ifthey show up should have been put in the plans, and the guy who wrote the book weren\'t anyafter that, she says,"we feelit\'s dueto bettern the plan writer.The book was chuckfull ofofdefects in the materials." stuff about a lotdam junk probably some relative of hisn was sellin.There weren\'t anything in the book about the stuff we used anyway. Thenthe front ofofAccordingtothelatestUpdate,liability inthe book was a bunchstuff berepairs looked like some layer had stuck in there because it was in real little print andshould alsolimited tonecessitated looked like it was there to jip us.bythe contractor\'s improperapplication of"This has become the roofing materials. Besides that the man weto run the roofin crew said the man you sentthe standard in the industry and shouldbe sent up there all Applicator Agreements," there slowed him down a lot and made him cut holes in the roof after it was done,made a part of and then patch upmyit states. the holes and some days your feller got mean and mademan tear offAll this cost us a hell ofof everything he done the day before.a lotmoney we didn\'t aim to spend.Thesecondkeyprov1s10nisthe Indemnification/HoldHarmlessClause. All this caused my man toIdeally, the Applicator Agreement should start drinkin and carrying on sum, and when I got there to see about it, it agrafated me so bad I went on a drunk myself, and even younot require the roofing contractor to hold ought to be smart enough to know you can\'t get much roofin done when yourharmless and indemnify the manufacturer drunk all of the time.or any otherpartywithrespectto any claimslosses. Such provisions, however, or Ifus which building you wanthavebecomecommoninApplicator you guys had any cents all you had to do was tell the roof on and we could ofofAgreements. got it done in a week and we couldall made a wad of dough. When confronted with this type of clause, the nasty ffthis ain\'t enuf to stop your complaints we could start tellin some ofSpencer Fane first attempts "to eliminate stuff about your mistakes in the plans which ain\'t in accord with our ethices butthe clausefromthe Agreement.Failing we don\'t intend to Jet that stop us iflooks like it will cost us money.that,weseektoobtainamutual _ it indemnification whereby the manufacture,By the Head Roofer Hisself,idemnifies the roofing contractor in additioh-/ "Shoe String\'\'to the contractor\'s indemnification for the Jerry Sadlon, (MR.CA Director)manufacturer", states the Update. Contmued on Page 4 . Page 2'