Morgan Stanley DW Inc. v. Halliday

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that a non-signatory trust beneficiary was not bound by an arbitration clause despite the contract generating income that ultimately flowed to the non-signatory
• recognizing the general rule that only parties to a contract are bound by that contract with the exception of third party beneficiaries
• holding in a lawsuit by a beneficiary of a trust against the trustees and brokerage firm, the beneficiary was not bound by the arbitration clause in the agreement between the trustees and brokerage firm under a third-party beneficiary theory
• holding a non-party may sue for breach of contract if and only if the contract “clearly express[es] an intent to primarily and directly benefit the third party or a class of persons to which that party belongs”
• beneficiary not bound by arbitration provision in account agreement signed by trustee under third-party beneficiary theory because agreement did not clearly- express an intent to primarily and directly benefit the third-party
• beneficiary not bound by - 32 - arbitration provision in account agreement signed by trustee under third-party beneficiary theory because agreement did not clearly express an intent to primarily and directly benefit the third-party

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).