1. Contracts Rights in Third Parties
Special Industries/Cases That Often Involve Third-Party Rights
Insurance Industry: often, treating and services personnel wish to be directly paid by an insurance company and not the policy holder. Contractual arrangement, and sometimes special state legislation, will control whether and how this is permitted. Also, insurance companies may take over rights of indsured, to defend, etc., (“subrogation”) but be careful in Fl. Legislation appears to require insured to defend claim and insurer pays later – probably keeps costs lower.
Government Contracting: government entities (on all levels) contract with tax dollars/budgets for a variety of goods and services. If something goes wrong and a citizen is harmed, thought about suing government is given, but thanks to sovereign immunity, it is often not viable. Citizens would then wish to sue the supplier – but have no privity with the supplier – thus they seek to enforce rights as third-party beneficiaries.
Contracting/Sub-Contracting:* check master agreement – sometimes, as an example, the party ordering construction forces contractor to be fully responsible to pay sub-contractors (often, posting a bond or otherwise insuring payment). Contractors sometimes are late, go bankrupt, and sub-contractors then wish to seek redress against the other party to the master agreement. This too is a third-party beneficiary argument.
[4. Already addressed were municipalities,* public and quasi public utilities, and common carriers].
The constitutional notion of sovereign immunity is at issue with governments. They tend to be protected from third-party liability where the thing (usually service, e.g., road construction) is for the general public – less likely if the thing is for a specific person or group.**
Same basic rules about third-party beneficiaries apply, but there are often also special rules, often statutory, for specific issues that arise.
Florida Spearin Doctrine: if a latent defect in plans or specifications on a project lead to damages, the government is responsible if it supplied the plans or specs, otherwise the contractor/provider/maker is.
**Florida Modlin Doctrine: see Modlin v. City of Miami Beach, 201 So.2d 70 (1967) for further information on government responsibility/immunity.
Be wary of tort, agency, sovereign immunity inter-connectedness in these cases.
© 2018 Paul J. Carrier, Paul J Carrier, LLC Blue – Category Recognition; White – Specific Category; Yellow – “Black Letter” Rules (to be memorized); Green – Main Factual Issues – Analysis; Red – Upper-Level, Integrated Comprehension