Book2 Chapter02 Title03

GERMAN CIVIL CODE OF 1896

• Based on the English Translation by: Wang, Chung Hui (1907). The German Civil Code, translated and annotated with historical introduction and appendices. London: Stevens and Sons. [available on Archive.org]

BOOK II. Law of Obligations.

Chapter II. Obligations Ex Contractu.

Title III. Promise of Performance in favour of a Third Perty.

Section 328.

• [I] An act of performance in favour of a third party may by contract be stipulated for in such manner that the third party acquires a direct right to demand the performance.
• [II] In the absence of express stipulation it is to be inferred from the circumstances, especially from the object of the contract, whether the third party shall acquire the right, whether the right of the third party shall arise forthwith or only under certain conditions, and whether any right shall be reserved to the contracting parties to take away or modify the right of the third party without his consent.

Section 329.

• If in a contract one party binds himself to satisfy a creditor of the other party without assuming the debt (A), it is not to be presumed, in case of doubt, that the creditor shall acquire a direct right to demand satisfaction from him.

Section 330.

• If, in a contract for life insurance or an annuity, payment of the insurance or annuity to a third party is stipulated for, it is to be presumed, in case of doubt, that the third party shall acquire a direct right to demand the payment. The same rule applies, if in a gratuitous transfer of property the duty to perform an act in favour of a third party is imposed upon the recipient, or if a person, on taking over the whole of another person's property or goods, promises an act of performance in favour of a third party for the purpose of compounding a liability.

Section 331.

• [I] If the performance in favour of the third party is to be effected after the death of the person to whom it was promised, in case of doubt the third party acquires the right to the performance upon the death of the promisee.
• [II] If the promisee dies before the birth of the third party, the promise to perform in favour of the third party can be revoked or altered only if the right to do so has been reserved.

Section 332.

• If the promisee has reserved to himself the right of substituting another for the third party named in the contract without the consent of the promisor, this may also be done, in case of doubt, by disposition mortis causâ.

Section 333.

• If the third party rejects, by declaration to the promisor, the right acquired under the contract, the right is deemed not to have been acquired.

Section 334.

• Defences arising from the contract are available to the promisor even as against the third party.

Section 335.

• The promises may, unless a contrary intention of the contracting parties is to be presumed, demand performance in favour of the third party, even though the right to the performance is in the latter.