Has the Particular Liability Been Specifically Assumed, Excluded or Not Mentioned in the Apa?

Both vendors and purchasers have a strong interest in ensuring that the ownership of all liabilities has been clearly allocated by the APA. The parties should address the question: If the liabilities assumed (or excluded) have been listed, what is to be presumed about the liabilities which have not been listed? Are they to be included (pro-vendor) or excluded (pro-purchaser) from the assets transferred by the APA?

This article explains buyer and seller strategies with respect to liabilities. When drafting an asset purchase agreement, the buyer will likely negotiate for narrow assumed liability and broad excluded liability. That is they will only agree to assume liability in certain circumstances and will exclude liability broadly to include all liabilities other than those expressly assumed by the buyer. The seller on the other hand wants the buyer to assume as many liabilities as possible so broader assumption language favours the seller.

Read the article here.

Takeaway:

  • Parties should clearly identify which party will be responsible for unlisted liabilities.

Written by Rajah. Rajah Lehal is Founder and CEO of Clausehound.com. Rajah is a legal technologist and technology lawyer who is, together with the Clausehound team, capturing and sharing lawyer expertise, building deal negotiation libraries, teaching negotiation in classrooms, and automating negotiation with software.