PRIVITY, Black's Law Dictionary (9th ed. 2009), privity
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`Black's Law Dictionary (9th ed. 2009), privity
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`PRIVITY
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`privity (priv-<<schwa>>-tee). (16c) 1. The connection or relationship between two parties, each having a legally recognized
`interest in the same subject matter (such as a transaction, proceeding, or piece of property); mutuality of interest <privity of
`contract>. [Cases: Contracts
`186; Judgment
` 678(2).]
`horizontal privity. (1968) Commercial law. The legal relationship between a party and a nonparty who is related to the party
`(such as a buyer and a member of the buyer's family). [Cases: Sales
`255.]
`privity of blood. (16c) 1. Privity between an heir and an ancestor. 2. Privity between coparceners.
`privity of contract. (17c) The relationship between the parties to a contract, allowing them to sue each other but preventing a
`third party from doing so. • The requirement of privity has been relaxed under modern laws and doctrines of implied warranty
`and strict liability, which allow a third-party beneficiary or other foreseeable user to sue the seller of a defective product. [Cases:
`Contracts
`186; Sales
`255.]
`“To many students and practitioners of the common law privity of contract became a fetish. As such, it operated to deprive
`many a claimant of a remedy in cases where according to the mores of the time the claim was just. It has made many learned
`men believe that a chose in action could not be assigned. Even now, it is gravely asserted that a man cannot be made the
`debtor of another against his will. But the common law was gradually influenced by equity and by the law merchant, so that
`by assignment a debtor could become bound to pay a perfect stranger to himself, although until the legislature stepped in, the
`common-law courts characteristically made use of a fiction and pretended that they were not doing that which they really were
`doing.” William R. Anson, Principles of the Law of Contract 335 (Arthur L. Corbin ed., 3d Am. ed. 1919).
`“It is an elementary principle of English law — known as the doctrine of ‘Privity of Contract’ — that contractual rights and
`duties only affect the parties to a contract, and this principle is the distinguishing feature between the law of contract and the law
`of property. True proprietary rights are ‘binding on the world’ in the lawyer's traditional phrase. Contractual rights, on the other
`hand, are only binding on, and enforceable by, the immediate parties to the contract. But this distinction, fundamental though
`it be, wears a little thin at times. On the one hand, there has been a constant tendency for contractual rights to be extended in
`their scope so as to affect more and more persons who cannot be regarded as parties to the transaction. On the other hand, few
`proprietary rights are literally ‘binding on the world’.” P.S. Atiyah, An Introduction to the Law of Contract 265 (3d ed. 1981).
`“The doctrine of privity means that a person cannot acquire rights or be subject to liabilities arising under a contract to which
`he is not a party. It does not mean that a contract between A and B cannot affect the legal rights of C indirectly.” G.H. Treitel,
`The Law of Contract 538 (8th ed. 1991).
`privity of estate. (17c) A mutual or successive relationship to the same right in property, as between grantor and grantee or
`landlord and tenant. — Also termed privity of title; privity in estate. [Cases: Landlord and Tenant
`20, 53.]
`privity of possession. (1818) Privity between parties in successive possession of real property. • The existence of this type of
`privity is often at issue in adverse-possession claims. [Cases: Adverse Possession
`43.]
`privity of title. See privity of estate.
`vertical privity. (1968) 1. Commercial law. The legal relationship between parties in a product's chain of distribution (such as a
`255.] 2. Privity between one who signs a contract containing a restrictive covenant
`manufacturer and a seller). [Cases: Sales
`and one who acquires the property burdened by it.
`2. Joint knowledge or awareness of something private or secret, esp. as implying concurrence or consent <privity to a crime>.
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`© 2009 Thomson Reuters
`
`Bryan A. Garner, Editor in Chief
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`End of Document
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`© 2014 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
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` © 2014 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
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