ABSTRACT
Sub-section (3) states that the third party must be expressly identified in the contract by name, as a member of a class, or as answering to a particular description. This seems designed to overcome problems such as those encountered in Southern Water Authority v Carey (1985), where it was not possible to name the third parties in whose favour the main contractor intended to contract, because they hadn’t yet been appointed. (For a full explanation of the problems which preceded the 1999 Act, and which may still exist if the contract is not brought within the terms of the 1999 Act, see the section below on ‘Privity of Contract and Exemption Clauses’, p 271).
