Legal Term: INTER PARTES

Definition: This, in a technical sense, signifies an agreement professing in the outset, and before any stipulations are introduced, to be made between such and such persons as, for example, " This Indenture, made the _____ day of _____ 1848, between A B of the one part, and C D of the other." It is true that every contract is in one sense inter partes, because to be valid there must be two parties at least; but the technical sense of this expression is as above mentioned. Addis. on Contr. 9. 2. This being a solemn declaration, the effect of such introduction. is to make all the covenants, comprised in a deed to be covenants between the parties and none others; so that should a stipulation be found in the body of a deed by which "the said A B covenants with E F to pay him one hundred dollars," the words "with E F" are inoperative, unless they have been used to denote for whose benefit the stipulation may have been made, being in direct contradiction with what was previously declared, and C D alone can sue for the non-payment; it being a maxim that where two opposite intentions are expressed in a contract, the first in order shall prevail. 8 Mod. 116; 1 Show. 58; 3 Lev. 138; Carth. 76; Roll. R. 196; 7 M. & IV. 63; But this rule does notapply to simple contracts inter partes. 2 D . & R. 277; 3 D. & R. 273 Addis. on Contr. 244, 256. 3. When there are more than two sides to a contract inter partes, for example, a deed; as when it is made between A B, of the first part; C D, of the second; and E F, of the third, there is no objection to one covenanting with another in exclusion of the third. See 5 Co. 182; 8 Taunt. 245; 4 Ad. & Ell. N. S. 207; Addis. on Contr. 267.

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