Opinion ID: 6972013
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Nationwide’s Cross-Appeal

Text: Our resolution of the CIGNA defendants’ appeal also disposes of Nationwide’s cross-appeal regarding the district court’s holding that Nationwide is not entitled to bring a claim directly against the CIGNA defendants under a third-party beneficiary theory. Nationwide is a third party to the Assumption Agreement in the same generic sense as every individual and entity on earth (other than the members of AFIA and the CIGNA defendants), in that it is not a party to the agreement. As such, the disclaimer provision precludes it and all other third parties to the contract from enforcing it. By-precluding any third party from enforcing the agreement, this same disclaimer defeats Nationwide’s claim that it belongs to the discrete subset of generic third parties referred to as third-party beneficiaries, whose distinguishing characteristic is their legal right to enforce contracts to which they are not a party. See Rosier v. Brown, 158 Misc.2d 748, 601 N.Y.S.2d 554, 557 (N.Y.Sup.Ct.1993) (citing Nepco Forged Prods., Inc. v. Consolidated, 99 A.D.2d 508, 470 N.Y.S.2d 680, 681 (N.Y.App.Div.1984)). Accordingly the district court was correct to hold that Nationwide is not a third-party beneficiary.