Privity

[PerryB1237 at aol.com]

Fred, 

In a message dated 96-05-23 08:52:46 EDT, you write:

>  Would you be kind enough to comment on
>(with an amount of research equal to your last answer) the
>question of liability to a third party, presumably someone
>who did not buy the magazine, or someone who did not buy the
>computer program?

I assume that the injured party from the tower fall would sue the tower owner
on a tort theory, then the tower owner would bring in the engineer/software
publisher for indemnification, based upon the (assumed, for the sake of our
example) inaccurate equations.  

I can't imagine a circumstance in which a neighbor (the most likely injured
party) would be a third-party beneficiary of the contract between publisher
and software purchaser, so the lack of privity would presumably protect the
publisher from a breach of contract suit by the neighbor.  I am not certain
whether the law would recognize the publisher owes any duty to potential
neighbors of purchasers sufficient to support a tort claim, but I  would
guess not.  

I could be wrong.  I haven't been a litigation attorney for 18 years, and the
holes in my knowledge in this area are big enough to drive N6TR's sweepstakes
score through.  

Perry
-- 
                      Fred Hopengarten K1VR
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