Editing Privity of contract (section)

==History==
Prior to 1861 there existed decisions in English Law allowing provisions of a contract to be enforced by persons not party to it, usually relatives of a promisee, and decisions disallowing third party rights.<ref>{{Citation |title=Privity of Contracts: Contracts for the benefits of third parties|publisher=Law Commission| id=LC242| url=http://lawcommission.justice.gov.uk/docs/lc242_privity_of_contract_for_the_benefit_of_third_parties.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite court |litigants=Drive Yourself Hire Co (London) v Strutt|date=1954|vol=1|reporter=Q.B.|opinion=250}}</ref> The doctrine of privity emerged alongside the doctrine of [[consideration]], the rules of which state that consideration must move from the promise, that is to say that if nothing is given for the promise of something to be given in return, that promise is not legally binding unless promised as a [[deed]]. 1833 saw the case of ''[[Price v. Easton]]'', where a contract was made for work to be done in exchange for payment to a third party. When the third party attempted to sue for the payment, he was held to be not privy to the contract, and so his claim failed. This was fully linked to the doctrine of consideration, and established as such, with the more famous case of ''[[Tweddle v. Atkinson]]''. In this case the plaintiff was unable to sue the executor of his father-in-law, who had promised to the plaintiff's father to make payment to the plaintiff, because he had not provided any consideration to the contract.

The doctrine was developed further in ''[[Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre v. Selfridge and Co. Ltd.]]'' through the judgment of Lord Haldane.

Privity of Contract played a key role in the development of negligence as well. In the first case of ''[[Winterbottom v. Wright]]'' (1842), in which Winterbottom, a postal service wagon driver, was injured due to a faulty wheel, attempted to sue the manufacturer Wright for his injuries. The courts however decided that there was no privity of contract between manufacturer and consumer.

This issue appeared repeatedly until ''[[MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co.]]'' (1916), a case analogous to ''Winterbottom v Wright'' involving a car's defective wheel. Judge [[Benjamin N. Cardozo|Cardozo]], writing for the [[New York Court of Appeals]], decided that no privity is required when the manufacturer knows the product is probably dangerous if defective, third parties (e.g. consumers) will be harmed because of said defect, and there was no further testing after initial sale. Foreseeable injuries occurred from foreseeable uses. Cardozo's innovation was to decide that the basis for the claim was that it was a tort not a breach of contract. In this way he finessed the problems caused by the doctrine of privity in a modern industrial society. Although his opinion was only law in New York State, the solution he advanced was widely accepted elsewhere and formed the basis of the doctrine of [[product liability]].