I thought this might be of interest to you all.

I just received one of my account statements and inside I found a Deposit agreement revision notice, effective December 1 1999. A new section was added SECTION 35

35. FORCE MAJEURE. You agree that we will be excused from performance under this Agreement for any period and to the extent that we are prevented from performing, in whole or in part, as a result of any acts of God, war, civil or military disturbance, court order, labor dispute, third party nonperformance or other causes beyond our reasonable control, including failures, fluctuations or non-availability of electrical power, heat, air conditioning, lights, or telecommunications equipment.

Definition of force majeure

( Fr. ftrs mazhoer'), pl. forces majeures ( Fr. ftrs mazhoer'). Law. an unexpected and disruptive event that may operate to excuse a party from a contract.

I cant wait to hear what the Senior Vice President of my bank has to say about defending this amendment. Hes still trying to answer and defend my pointed questions about the fractional reserve banking system, reserves, FDIC insurance and how the windowing technology used at the bank can be considered Y2K complaint.

Ive been following this forum for some time now and appreciate all those that have posted from their perspective how they see things happening. Just one more piece of the puzzle I offer.

Chip.. .

-- Frank (chip@tarc.org), October 06, 1999

Answers

What the hell..... didn't every state pass laws declaring Y2K to be foreseeable and preventable, as opposed to an unexpected and disruptive event?????

Can you have it both ways??

This is a big development. Thanks.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), October 06, 1999.

VEEEEERY interesting. Please keep me posted on this at scojo@yahoo.com ...

Scott Johnson
Editor, y2ktoday

-- Scott Johnson (scojo@yahoo.com), October 06, 1999.

Frank... WHAT BANK????

-scott

-- Scott Johnson (scojo@yahoo.com), October 06, 1999.

"What the hell..... didn't every state pass laws declaring Y2K to be foreseeable and preventable, as opposed to an unexpected and disruptive event?????"

Actually, many (perhaps even most or all) states passed resolutions stating just the opposite. They deemed Y2K to be equivelent to an "act of God" and therefore open to protection under force majeure.

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), October 06, 1999.

Force Majeure is a commonplace weasel-out. Even better than the "Act of God" for boilerplate, as it covers more territory. "If we screw up, and it's very likely, and we hose your account, you are S.O.L." It's the same thing as the valet parking scams: "If we crash your car, or rip off your stereo while we've got the keys, you're S.O.L."

S.O.L. = sh*t out of luck

-- A (A@AisA.com), October 06, 1999.

Hey Scott,

First National Bank Texas.

Not familiar with URL posting on this forum but try this: http://www.1stnb.com/

Chip.. .

-- Frank (chip@tarc.org), October 06, 1999.

OK....so your bank can hide behind Force Majure...What about folks with mortgages? What if your employer is the government, and you don't get paid? Or if you rely on a government pension, and you don't get a check deposited to your account? If your mortgage is attached as a regular payment out of that account....isn't the whole thing out of your own hands, as in Force Majure?

-- Merci! (Sallie@blufrogg.com), October 06, 1999.

Ppl will just keep on writing checks and nobody will know if they're good or not ... transactions will have to stop ... the govt will of course declare a FREEZE and Stay In Place. Nobody moves, nobody evicted, til this mess is straightened out, programmers are being requisitioned to critical areas ... if you have a problem of any kind, please step this way into our warming centers ...

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 08, 1999.