Franchise Owner Agreement.

7. TRANSFERS

• 7.1. By Us. This Agreement is fully assignable by us, without prior notice to you, and shall inure to the benefit of any assignee(s) or other legal successor(s) to our interest in this Agreement, provided that we shall, subsequent to any such assignment, remain liable for the performance of our obligations under this Agreement up to the effective date of the assignment.

• 7.2. By You. The rights and duties created by this Agreement are personal to you and the Owners. We are granting you area development rights in reliance upon the character, skill, attitude, business ability and financial resources of you and your Owners. Because this Agreement is a personal services contract, neither you nor any Owner may engage in a Transfer (other than a Permitted Transfer) without our prior approval. Any Transfer (other than a Permitted Transfer) without our approval is void and constitutes a breach of this Agreement. We will not unreasonably withhold our approval of a proposed Transfer if all of the following conditions are satisfied:

  • (a) we believe the proposed transferee has sufficient business experience, aptitude and financial resources to develop, own and operate all of the remaining Bigfoot Forestry Businesses to be developed under this Agreement and meets our minimum criteria for area developers;
  • (b) you and your Owners and affiliates are in full compliance with all Definitive Agreements;
  • (c) the transferee's owners successfully complete, or make arrangements to attend, the initial training program and the transferee pays us any applicable training fee;
  • (d) the transferee and its owners sign our then-current form of area development agreement (unless we, in our sole discretion, instruct you to assign this Agreement to the transferee) except that: (i) the Term shall be the Term remaining under this Agreement; (ii) the transferee need not pay a separate development fee; and (iii) the Development Schedule and Development Territory shall be the same Development Schedule and Development Territory specified in this Agreement (modified to reflect the development obligations satisfied prior to the Transfer);

• (e) you or the transferee pay us a $10,000 transfer fee (in addition to the transfer fee, you must reimburse us for any commission we pay our broker if our broker finds the transferee);

• (f) you assign all Franchise Agreements to the transferee in accordance with the transfer provisions under each such Franchise Agreement, including payment of any transfer fee imposed under each such Franchise Agreement;

• (g) you and your Owners sign a General Release;

• (h) we choose not to exercise our right of first refusal described in §7.5; and

• (i) you or the transferring Owner, as applicable, and the transferee satisfy all other conditions we reasonably require as a condition to our approval of the Transfer.

You may not: (a) transfer less than all development rights remaining under this Agreement (i.e., you may not retain the right to develop any Bigfoot Forestry Business); or (b) transfer your development rights to multiple transferees. Our consent to a Transfer shall not constitute a waiver of any Claims we may have against the transferor or our right to demand the transferee comply with all terms of the area developm

Source: Item 23 — RECEIPT (FDD pages 42–162)