This document discusses the concept of contractual obligations and the distinction between parties and third parties, highlighting exceptions to the principle of non-opposability.
Extract
[...] Protection of Third Parties to the Contract The parties may have an interest in the contract and may benefit from protection in this regard. Thus, they can rely on it, notably to provide proof of a fact. (doc For example, we can cite the Myr'Ho decision rendered by the plenary assembly on October 2006: 'the third party to a contract can invoke, on the basis of delictual liability, a contractual breach as soon as this breach has caused him damage'. [...]
[...] The question of whether the beneficiary third party acquires the quality of contracting party is disputed. (doc 11, doc 13) List of documents*: *These documents are available upon request from the customer service. [...]
[...] The jurisprudence has confirmed this principle of protection, in particular by a judgment of the 1st civil chamber rendered on 15 February 2000 under the article 1165 of the Civil Code (doc 4). The principle of non-opposability to third parties is nonetheless attenuated in certain situations. II. Exceptions to the principle of non-opposability As for the binding force of the contract, an important distinction must be made between the parties and third parties. The parties, by definition and necessarily, are creditors or debtors under the contract, they are subject to its binding force and can rely on it. [...]
[...] Third parties cannot request the execution of the contract nor be forced to execute it, subject to the provisions of the present section and those of Chapter III of Title IV' (doc 2). This is the binding force of the contract. Thus, Article 1341 of the Civil Code states that the creditor has the right to the execution of the obligation; he can force the debtor to comply with the conditions provided by law. (Doc 9). The parties would then be all those who are bound by the obligatory effects of the contract, even if we distinguish between contracting parties and linked parties. A first objection had immediately appeared to us. [...]
[...] Can we say that the binding force of the contract is totally opposable to third parties to the latter? The contract is a legal act in which two or more parties create a legal link, entailing reciprocal obligations. However, a doctrinal controversy has developed regarding the qualification of parties and third parties. Thus, in addition to the contracting parties, i.e., the people who have actually given their consent for the formation of the contract, the linked parties, i.e., the people who, although not having given their consent to the contract, are however active or passive holders of the obligatory effects generated by the latter, in opposition to third parties, who are only concerned by the opposability of the legal situation born of the contract. [...]
