Opinion ID: 2747894
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: NTPB provisions as proof of intent

Text: Under Colorado law, the parties to a contract must intend to create third-party beneficiaries, and the best evidence of their intent is the contract itself: The key question is the intent of the parties to the actual contract to confer a benefit on a third party. That intent must appear from the contract itself or be shown by necessary implication. It is a question of fact to be determined by the terms of the contract taken as a whole, construed in the light of the circumstances under which it was made and the apparent purpose the parties were trying to accomplish. Concrete Contractors, Inc. v. E.B. Roberts Const. Co., 664 P.2d 722, 725 (Colo. App. 1982). If written documents are ambiguous, courts may consider extrinsic evidence to determine the parties’ intent. Chambliss/Jenkins Assocs. v. Forster, 650 P.2d 1315, 1318 (Colo. App. 1982). If an agreement is contained in multiple documents, courts construe those documents together. Id. Nevertheless, “[t]he intent of the parties to a contract is to be determined primarily from the language of the instrument itself.” Ad Two, Inc. v. City & Cnty. of Denver ex rel. Manager of Aviation, 9 P.3d 373, 376 (Colo. 2000) (en banc). Courts construing Colorado law have determined an NTPB provision offers strong proof of the parties’ intent to preclude recognition of third-party beneficiaries. In The Arc of The Pikes Peak Region v. Nat’l Mentor Holdings, No. 10-cv-01144, 2011 WL 1047081, at  (D. Colo. Mar. 18, 2011), the court considered NTPB provisions in two -13- contracts, determined “the contracting parties’ intent is expressed clearly in the contracts,” and concluded the alleged third-party beneficiaries did not state a claim on which relief could be granted. A party may allege it was intended to benefit from a contract, but such allegations do not overcome contradictory statements in the text of a contract attached to their complaint. See Flannery v. Recording Indus. Ass’n of Am., 354 F.3d 632, 638 (7th Cir. 2004) (“[W]hen a document contradicts a complaint to which it is attached, the document’s facts or allegations trump those in the complaint.”).