Third Party Contract in UK Law

It is express when it is given by express words, such as when a board of directors pass a resolution which authorises two of their number to sign cheques. It is implied when it is inferred from the conduct of the parties and the circumstances of the cape, such as when the board of directors appoint one of their number to be managing director. They thereby impliedly authorise him to do all such things as fall within the usual scope of that office.

It seems to me that that principle applies, not only to a debt but also to an option. The grantorcannot be expected to act upon a letter (purporting to exercise the option) which comes out of the blue from some one or other of which heknows nothing. He must be told that it comes from an assignee who has taken an assignment. Nothing is therefore necessary to perfect the right of the assignee to exercise the option.

The third party never was expressed to be a party to the arbitration agreement but, in view of the fact that he has in effect become a statutory assignee of the promisee's right of action against the promisor and because, by reason of the underlying policy of the 1999 Act expressed in section 1(4) he is confined to the means of enforcement provided by the contract to the promisee, namely arbitration, he is to be treated as standing in the shoes of that promisee for the purpose only of the enforcement of the substantive term.