IDENTIFICATION AND THE CONTRACTS (RIGHTS OF THIRD PARTIES) ACT 1999

Avraamides v Colwill [2006] EWCA Civ 1533, 14 November 2006

In Avraamides v Colwill [2006] EWCA Civ 1533, 14 November 2006, the Court of Appeal considered s1(3) of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 which states that, in order for a third party to be entitled to enforce a term of the contract under the Act, the third party must be ‘expressly identified in the contract by name, as a member of a class or as answering a particular description’. On the facts it was held that the claimant third parties had not been ‘expressly’ identified in the contract and that the sub-section did not ‘allow a process of construction or implication’. It followed that the claimants were not entitled to invoke the Act in order to bring a claim against the defendants.