"One Billion Years!"
Whoa.
This week’s contract is very short, but has some significant issues to address. I am aware that it is not likely that many of my readers are going to be signing up for the Church of Scientology’s Sea Organization (which, as far as I can tell, is a religious navy, the purpose of which is to “get ethics in on the planet”). However, the contract for joining the Sea Org (PDF) is particularly intriguing, and likely very difficult to have upheld in Court (which really is the reason for having a contract).
So here’s the analysis for the Sea Org contract:
1. Impossibility. As I have discussed previously, contracts that require performance that is impossible are generally determined to be void. Although the goals of this contract are clearly stated, there is no reason to think that they are in anyway achievable. As is stated in the contract, the goal is “to bring about spiritual freedom of all beings through the application of LRH’s technology.” (I presume that LRH is L. Ron Hubbard.) This goal is incredibly vague, and does not provide any indication of when that goal will have been achieved—which would allow the contract to be considered fulfilled.
2. Incomprehensible Purpose. Although contracts are not required to have a purpose, giving a few statements up front help give context to the contract, which is useful in interpreting the provisions if there is a dispute. (Normally these purpose statements begin with “Whereas.”) This contract includes a purpose, but it is unclear what exactly that purpose is: “to get ETHICS IN on this PLANET AND THE UNIVERSE,” among other things. Generally speaking, a contract cannot be enforced on the basis of the purpose statements, but only with regard to the specific promises outlined in the contract. This means two things for the Sea Org contract: (1) It is entirely unclear what this purpose statement means, and it is therefore of no value of consequence; and (2) even if an understanding of the purpose could be discerned, it could not be the basis for a breach of contract claim.
3. Impracticability. Although the term of the contract is defined (which is important if you are looking at this contract via my Contract Review Checklist), given the typical 80-year lifespan of modern humans, it is impractical to require service for 1 billion years. Impracticability is not the same as either illegality or impossibility; it simply means that a required action has become unreasonably expensive or difficult. Arguably, it is impossible to serve someone for a billion years given the typical human lifespan, but I could see the parties to this contract potentially utilizing the presumed immortality of the soul as being able to serve the remaining 999 million-999 thousand-920 years under the contract. But that still seems impractical somehow, so I would add that problem to the list.
4. Unknown Incorporated Document. If you pay attention, the contract incorporates “Flag Order 232.” But that document is not included with the contract. The purpose of incorporating documents in a contract is to make it known that other conditions or policies apply to a given agreement without needing to re-write and include all those conditions in the contract. Generally, however, there is access to the incorporated terms. If you find yourself signing a contract that incorporates other terms you have not seen (for web services it is usually privacy policies), you should try to find out what those terms are before signing. It’s possible that anyone signing the Sea Org contract already knows what Flag Order 232 is, but without it being attached or available, it shouldn’t be signed.
5. Lack of Consideration. Even if you could throw out all the problems with this contract, there is still a gaping hole in it: there is no consideration! Consideration is necessary for every contract in order to ensure that each side is getting something, rather than just making a gratuitous promise. The Sea Org contract, however, has no consideration—there is nothing that the Sea Org is giving to the lucky person who is pledging 1,000,000,000 years of servitude to them. At its base, a contract is a trade, but this contract only takes, and does not give in return. Therefore, there is no consideration and this cannot even be considered a contract.
It looks like a contract, and it smells like a contract, but it’s not a contract. That’s the danger of not knowing the basics of contracts and how contracts work. Luckily, I expect most of you haven’t had many problems with this particular contract, but it is important to keep these things in mind—particularly if you are the drafter of the contract.
See any other potential problems with this contract? (It’s kind of like Hidden Pictures, isn’t it?) Run into any other sketchy contracts like this? Send them my way, or warn us about them in the comments.
About Graham Martin
Graham Martin is a solo practitioner focusing on Contract law (including drafting, review, and litigation). He operates Martin Legal Services, LLC in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
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Wow, nice to see this reviewed at this level!!
But link to the pdf version of the contract is busted.
P.S. I was so excited to see this article i forgot too mention that there’s a ton more wonky Scientology Contracts readily available on the following link if you would more of the same, with much meat on the bone to gnaw on
http://www.exposescientology.com/scientologycontracts.html
If you have any questions on what that stuff is and where it fits into the bigger scheme of scientology at large, feel free to email me privately and I’ll be happy to provide you with all the initial info & additional references you need to wrap your brain around each category of contracts before diving in.
Cheers!
Oh, but the people (slaves) who sign that contract DO get something back! All the beans and rice they can eat, freedom from any kind of relevant education, and a lifetime of servitude to a group of scam artists. If they’re female they get to abort any pregnacies which aren’t allowed in the Sea Org. If they mess up on their post (job) they get to go to a labor camp called the Rehabilitation Project Force aka RPF. If they leave the Sea Org before their contract is up they get to meet all kinds of PI’s hired by the cult to track them down and they get to meet OSA which is the cult’s private enforcement unit. These slackers who break their contract also get to be called SP’s which means suppressive person, and by cult policy they can be tricked, lied to, and destroyed utterly with no remorse.
Currant Sea Org staff also gets paid $50.00 a week if they are REALLY, REALLY lucky and they get free, cockroach infested, living quarters!
I may be wrong, but does not EVERY contract have to state the jurisdictional area and authority whose laws may conflict the agreement and possible automatically void it?
These contracts are usually NOT signed on the high seas, they are signed at mesmerizing events with beautiful young smiling women saying “Sign Here”. They are also typically signed after an intensive “registrar” meeting where these salesmen and women of the cult use every trick in the book to get people to sign for services, along with Hubbard’s favorite sales techniques that he found in “Big League Sales”. That book was mandatory reading for every Scientology salesman in the 1970s and 1980s. Those Scientology salesmen (and women) had one statistic that they had to maintain lest they be forced to clean the toilets with a toothbrush: Gross Sales. Gross Sales, the #1 statistic and the key statistic that Hubbard ever cared about from all of his establishments. Total money in.
The same aggressive sales techniques are used on the cult’s members, the ‘culties’, to sign this piece of paper. Then it is waived in front of their noses and they are threatened with having to pay back every service and every lodging they ever received from the cult. To make matters worse, the cult sometimes uses the ‘registrars’ and other culties to go after people who have left the ‘church’. The prize? 15% of any money recovered.
Since these people who have run for their lives, property, assets, savings and sanity are considered by the cult to now be enemies of the cult, the Scientology culties are told that these people have no laws to protect them from abuse by currently active members.
All of the above risks of ‘disconnection’ are cemented in to the minds of the brainwashed culties trying to leave the cult by that billion year contract.
I’ve been there. I had it happen to me. I saw it a hundred times with my own eyes. It’s real.
Contracts don’t need to state the jurisdiction and legal authority. They are generally assumed to be enforceable in the place in which they were signed, and if jurisdiction is not specified, they can potentially be enforced in any place in which an eligible defendant can be found.
Given your assertion that they are not signed at sea, then the contracts would likely be enforced or challenged wherever they were signed, or wherever the breaching party resides.
You have piqued my curiosity about contracts signed at sea, though, and how they would be enforced. I’m going to have to look into that. Thanks for the great idea!
Thank you for the excellent legal deconstruction of the ridiculous document. It’s an education. The PDF is also appreciated. I would love to be a fly-on-the-wall when this news reaches the celebrity centre in Los Angeles. That low-rent puppet show will soon be in need of some serious re-decorating.
To Graham:
These aren’t contracts signed at Sea. The Sea Org is just a name for Scientology’s enslaved members, whom are coerced in joining at a very young age (borderline human trafficking). The contract is signed before these kids are taken away then put on a ship where they are trained and brainwashed to cut themselves off the outside world and become little more than serving men. Many who escaped at later ages have allegations that David Miscavige (leader of Scientology) has used under aged female recruits for sexual pleasure. The problem is its on a ship outside of U.S. waters where who knows what they can do outside the jurisdiction.
The Sea Org now recruits minors to sign up using the allure of Hollywood.
Is it legal to take a recruit who signs up under the guise of a “Religious Order” to then be placed in a for profit company? The Sea Org runs the Mad Hatter Music Studios and uses these recruits in their studios.
The Sea org member gets a tithe of 50.00 per week, usually works over 40 + hours per week, and has no health benefits/insurance.
That’s a good question. I suspect that there is potentially a problem with some labor laws, and that if nothing else, minimum wage might be an issue. But I’m not an employment lawyer, so I don’t know the ins and outs of the employment laws and when a person is required to receive minimum wage and when there are exceptions.
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