Opinion ID: 1980772
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Sexton's Own Defenses as Promisor

Text: That leaves for consideration the defenses Sexton, as promisor, raised against Blair, the third-party beneficiary. Those defenses related to Blair's alleged service as Sexton's own attorney in lobbying for city contracts and the duration of Sexton's promised payments. A third-party beneficiary's rights depend on the validity of the contract creating them. ( Gallopin v. Continental Casualty Co. (1937), 290 Ill.App. 8, 13, 7 N.E.2d 771; see A. Corbin, Corbin on Contracts ch. 44, § 818 (1952).) And, therefore, a promisor may assert as a defense to the third-party beneficiary's claims under the contract the absence of mutual assent or consideration, lack of capacity, fraud, mistake and the like. Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 309, Comment, at 458 (1981); see also A. Corbin, Corbin on Contracts ch. 44, § 818 (1952). But the defenses Sexton alleged as promisor in its counterclaim do not go to the validity of the asset sale contract. What Sexton has attempted to do is to assert defenses to its obligation to pay Blair based upon some other direct contractual relationship with Blair. It bears repeating that the addendum stating Sexton's specific promise to Blair was simply a term of the asset sale contract. The addendumto which Blair was not a partycould create no separate contractual relationship between Sexton and Blair. Therefore, the allegations of Sexton's counterclaim that its payments to Blair were excessive legal fees or constituted a perpetual contract were also properly dismissed.