Version History
- First version, effective January 7th 2020
- Second version, effective March 11th, 2022
- Third version, effective November 5th, 2022
- Fourth version, effective November 5th, 2024
Introduction
Please read this Terms of Use Agreement (“Terms of Use”) carefully. By accessing or using this website or any other of Our websites (individually “Website” or “Service”, collectively, the “Websites” or “Services”) of the Lower Sherwood Farm Trust, its affiliates, or agents (“Lower Sherwood”, “Us”, “We”, or “Our”) other than to read these Terms of Use for the first time, you are agreeing to comply with these terms of use which may change from time to time as set forth below.
We offer a number of Websites and Services that include (but are not limited to) agriculture, agritourism, special events, boarding, competition, education, training, scientific, rescue, consulting, and other outreach and advocacy programs.
These Terms of Use are a binding legal agreement between You and Us and govern your access to and use of Our Website and our Services including any content, functionality or features on or through the Website, and any Services that we may offer. By using the Website or any of our Services, you agree to be bound to and abide by these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy, or if you violate them in any way, your right to access or use the Websites or Services are terminated. The Services that We offer may also include a separate agreement or contract that You may be required to agree to before Services can be provided to you.
We may change, add, or remove portions of these Terms of Use at any time, and will notify you of any material changes by email. Such changes shall be effective as of the date listed in the Version History at the top of this document. It is your responsibility to check the Terms of Use posted on the Website periodically so you are aware of changes.
You represent that you are at least thirteen years old if you reside in the USA or UK, or are sixteen anywhere else. If you are under eighteen years of age your parent or legal guardian has read these Terms of Use and has agreed to them and your use of our Websites.
Website Terms
Acceptable Use
When using our Websites, you agree to not:
- violate any federal, state, local or international rule or regulation;
- violate, infringe, or misappropriate other people’s intellectual property, or other legal rights;
- access data through unauthorized means, such as by using an automated system, caching, spider, crawler or scraper, except for public search engine operators who have permission to copy content from this Website for the sole purpose of creating a searchable index of content for public consumption;
- use the Websites in any manner that could disable, alter, damage or otherwise impair their performance, harm Lower Sherwood, or other users of the Websites;
- attempt to circumvent any technologies implemented by us, our providers or third parties to deliver the Website content to you;
- attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer the software or underlying code used to create or deliver Website content;
- adapt, modify, translate (except for personal use), ‘frame’, ‘mirror’, or aggregate any part of the Website content; or
- advocate or encourage any third party in doing any of the above.
Service Terms
Your Responsibilities
You are responsible and liable for your own acts and omissions and for the acts and omissions of anyone you invite to join or otherwise provide access to any Service we may provide to you. If you are bringing a minor child to one of our Services, You must be legally authorized to act on behalf of that minor and You are responsible for their supervision at all times.
Inherent Risks of Agritourism Services
The Agritourism Services that we provide have a number of inherent risks that may not be immediately obvious to You, including (but not limited to) risks of injury inherent to land, equipment, and animals (both wild and domesticated), as well as the potential for You to act in a negligent manner that may contribute to your injury or death.
Under Virginia law, We have no liability for Your injury or death if such injury or death results from these inherent risks and You assume all risk in participating in Services that we offer.
Furthermore, You assume all liability for the injury or death of any and all livestock, damage to land and crops, and damage to any equipment or structures that are participating in an Service with You either directly or incidentally.
Miscellaneous
Billing and Payments
When you book a Service through Us, You are agreeing to pay all charges for your Service including the base price of such Service, any applicable fees, transportation costs, fuel surcharges, taxes, and any other items that may be identified during checkout (the “Total Price”). You are agreeing that We may charge the payment method for the Total Price either directly or through a third party payment processor. You are also agreeing that We may charge the payment method that You provided to book Your Service in order to collect any amounts for damages incurred.
Limitation of Liability & Disclaimer of Warranties
Lower Sherwood does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement, or other information uploaded or distributed. Your reliance upon any such information shall be at your own risk.
The Websites are distributed on an “as-is” basis without any warranty of any kind, either express or implied.
While We do our best to ensure that Our Websites are always up-to-date and correct, Lower Sherwood does not warrant that the Website will be uninterrupted or error free, nor that defects will be corrected.
Lower Sherwood does not host our own server hardware, and as such does not guarantee that the servers hosting or distributing the Websites are free of viruses or other harmful components.
In no event will Lower Sherwood be liable under any legal theory to you or any other person for indirect, consequential, incidental, direct, punitive, actual, special, exemplary or other damages, including without limitation, loss of revenue or income, lost profits, pain and suffering, emotional distress, cost of substitute goods or services, or similar damages suffered or incurred by you or any third party that arise in connection with the Websites, Services or termination thereof for any reason, even if Lower Sherwood has been advised on the possibility of such damages.
No Waiver
Our failure to enforce any right or provision in these Terms does not constitute a waiver of that right unless acknowledged and agreed to by Us in writing.
None of these Terms may be waived, altered, or amended except by an instrument in writing duly executed by Us.
Third Parties
Our Websites and Services may contain links to third party websites that are subject to different terms and conditions. We are not responsible or liable for any aspect of those third party websites and links to such websites are not an endorsement. You are responsible for reading and agreeing to the terms of service of those websites in addition to Our own Terms.
Content and Trademarks
Content including, but not limited to, text, videos and images that are made available through our Website or through materials obtained through one of our offered Services may be protected by copyright, trademark and/or other laws of the United States and other countries. You acknowledge that all intellectual property rights for that Content are Our exclusive property and agree that You will not remove, alter or obscure any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary rights notices. Furthermore, You may not use, copy, adapt, modify, prepare derivative works of, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, broadcast or otherwise exploit any Content.
We do grant you a limited and non-exclusive license to access and view such Content (1) for your personal and non-commercial use provided that you maintain all copyright, trademark, and other proprietary rights or notices, (2) as a personal research resource, (3) for communicating with Us about our products or services, or (4) for purchasing products or services with Us.
You further acknowledge that You will not use Our name, logo, branding, trademarks, or use or register any domain name, social media handle, trade name, trademark, branding, logo, or other source identifier that may be confused with Our name or brand.
“Lower Sherwood Farm”, the leaping llama logo, and other trademarks and feature names are trademarks of the Lower Sherwood Farm Trust and are used with permission.
Interpretation
Except as they may be supplemented by additional terms and contracts, these Terms (including any other referenced terms) constitute the entire agreement between Us and You and supersede any and or prior oral or written agreements between Us and You.
If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision will be struck and will not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.
Force Majeure
We are not liable for any delay or failure to perform resulting from causes that are outside our reasonable control, including (but not limited to) acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, riots, embargoes, acts of civil or military authorities, fire, floods, accidents, pandemics, epidemics or disease, strikes or shortages of transportation facilities, fuel, energy, labor or materials.
Dispute Resolution
Any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to Our Website or Services, the relationship resulting in or from this Agreement or breach of any duties hereunder will be settled by Arbitration in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the U. S. Arbitration & Mediation (“USA&M”). All hearings will be held in St. Louis, Missouri before an Arbitrator. A judgment upon the award rendered by the Arbitrator shall be entered in a Court with competent jurisdiction. The Federal Arbitration Act (Title 9 U.S. Code Section 1 et. seq.) shall govern all arbitration and confirmation proceedings.
As a condition precedent to the filing of an arbitration claim, the parties agree to first mediate any claims between them. Any party refusing to mediate shall not prevent the other party or parties from pursuing their claims in arbitration. The parties will share the cost of mediation equally unless one party refuses to mediate or negotiate in good faith beforehand, whereupon that party shall exclusively pay all mediation costs regardless of the mediation decision. Nothing herein will be construed to prevent any party’s use of injunction, and/or any other prejudgment or provisional action or remedy. Any such action or remedy will not waive the moving party’s right to compel arbitration of any dispute.
The parties agree to also meet and negotiate in good faith in order to resolve any disputes which may arise between them.
Any dispute or claim by You may result in Your booked Services being terminated without refund, and no further bookings taken for You, or other related individuals.
Disputes outside of mediation will be resolved in the courts of Albemarle County, Virginia, and You consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.
These Terms of Use have been made and shall be construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the United States of America and the State of Virginia without regard to its conflict of law provisions.
Photo Release
You grant that We have the full irrevocable right to take pictures, portraits, digital images, or videos in which You may be included (the “Recordings” or “Recording”) and use, publish, reproduce, edit, exhibit, license, distribute or otherwise exploit the Recordings in whole or in part. In addition, You waive any right to inspect, approve, or receive any royalties from the Recordings or their use. You assign to Us all interest in the Recordings including copyright.
You release Us from any liabilities arising from the use of the Recordings that may occur intentionally or otherwise.
You may request that Recordings featuring You be withdrawn from Our use at any time by writing to Us at hello@lowersherwood.com.