EJCDC 2010 Edition Bond Forms Debut; EJCDC Grants NASBP Permission to Distribute to the NASBP Membership

By now, most surety professionals are aware of the release of the 2010 editions of the American Insititute of Architects (AIA) standardized performance and payment bond forms, AIA Document A312. The Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee, known by the acronym EJCDC (www.ejcdc.org), a joint venture of four associations, the American Council of Engineering Companies, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the Associated General Contractors of America, which produces standardized form documents for use on engineering, design and construction projects, has based its performance and payment bond form language on that found in AIA A312 since the first issuance of A312 in 1984. EJCDC again has followed suit by reissuing its bond forms on December 10, making them consistent with the 2010 editions of AIA A312. Led by its legal counsel, Hugh Anderson, Esq., EJCDC assumed a significant role in the revision process of the latest edition of A312. EJCDC subsequently entered into an agreement with AIA to use the content and paragraph numbering of A312 for its own performance and payment bond forms.

Such consistency of bond language between the AIA and EJCDC forms benefits our industry. Familiarity with standardized bond language expedites transactions, reducing review time and saving transactional costs. Consistent language also ensures that such bond forms become valued references and benchmarks for negotiation efforts, further expediting and stabilizing industry transactions.

At the request of NASBP, EJCDC provided NASBP with permission to distribute its bond forms, EJCDC C-610, Performance Bond (2010), and EJCDC C-615, Payment Bond (2010), to the NASBP membership. “EJCDC is pleased to make copies of the two bonds available to NASBP so your members can issue the EJCDC bonds when requested to do so,” related Anderson. The agreement between NASBP and EJCDC requires that NASBP and its membership meet the following conditions:

• the NASBP membership must strictly adhere to the terms of the licensing agreement which accompanies both bond forms. Among other things, this licensing agreement establishes that, if a bond is issued with the EJCDC logo or other implied or express attribution to EJCDC, then either the core text (Paragraphs 1-15 of the Performance Bond; Paragraphs 1-17 of the Payment Bond) must remain unaltered, or all changes to the core text must be clearly shown through redline/strikeout markings or notation of modifications in the bond’s last paragraph (Paragraph 16 of the Performance Bond; Paragraph 18 of the Payment Bond).
• the NASBP membership may not resell, publish, or distribute the EJCDC bonds as forms, but rather may use the forms only as the basis for the issuance of bona fide performance and payment bonds.
• the NASBP membership may add peripheral content, such as surety or agent letterheads or logos, additional signature lines, certification or authorization pages, notary blocks, and the like, and still retain the EJCDC logo and other attribution to EJCDC.

NASBP has created an area specific to the EJCDC bond forms on its web site, the NASBP EJCDC bond forms micro site. That area provides information about the bond forms, such as a press release about their release, along with the user licenses and the Word versions for download. You also may wish to visit other areas on the NASBP web site (www.nasbp.org), which provides information about ConsensusDOCS bond forms and AIA bond forms. At the NASBP ConsensusDOCS micro site, members and affiliates may download copies of all ConsensusDOCS bond forms upon agreement with the ConsensusDOCS license. NASBP has requested permission from AIA to distribute copies of its bond forms but has not yet received a response. If permission is granted, such forms will be available from the NASBP AIA bond forms micro site.

My thanks to EJCDC for allowing NASBP to distribute its performance and payment bond forms to you.