Contract (Third Party Rights) (Scotland) Act 2017

1 Creation of a third-party right

(1) A person who is not a party to a contract acquires a third-party right under it where—

(a) the contract contains an undertaking that one or more of the contracting parties will do, or not do, something for the person’s benefit, and

(b) at the relevant time it was the intention of the contracting parties that the person should be legally entitled to enforce or otherwise invoke the undertaking.

(2) The third-party right is the right to enforce or otherwise invoke the undertaking.

(3) The person who is to acquire a third-party right under a contract must be identifiable from the contract by being either named or described in it.

(4) A third-party right may be acquired by a person despite the fact that at the relevant time the person—

(a) was not in existence, or

(b) did not fall within the description of persons (if any) whom the contracting parties intended should benefit from, and be legally entitled to enforce or otherwise invoke, the undertaking.

(5) In subsections (1)(b) and (4), “the relevant time” means—

(a) the time when the contract was constituted, or

(b) if the undertaking was added to the contract by a modification of its terms, the time when the modification was made.