One company had acquired tyres from the appellant at a discount, but subject to conditions as to their resale. The respondents contracted for their repurchase, making similar promises, but it sold them below the minimum price agreed. The appellant sought to enforce their obligation.
Held: Viscount Haldane LC said: ‘in the law of England certain principles are fundamental. One is that only a person who is a party to a contract can sue on it. Our law knows nothing of a jus quaesitum tertio arising by way of contract. Such a right may be conferred by way of property, as, for example, under a trust, but it cannot be conferred on a stranger to a contract as a right to enforce the contract in personam.’ The appellants were a stranger to the contract obligations it sought to enforce.
Viscount Haldane LC, Lord Dunedin, Lord Atkinson, Lord Sumner, Lord Parmoor
[1915] UKHL 1, [1915] AC 847
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Humble v Hunter 1848
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Contract
Leading Case
Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.265979