California Civil Code Section 1599

Civil Code section 1599 permits a third party to enforce a contract before the parties to the contract rescind it if the contract is "made expressly for the benefit" of that third party. (See Spinks v. Equity Residential Briarwood Apartments (2009) 171 Cal. App. 4th 1004, 1021 90 Cal. Rptr. 3d 453 "'California law permits third party beneficiaries to enforce the terms of a contract made for their benefit'".) "Moreover, the contracting parties may not rescind or revoke the contract where the 'beneficiary has accepted the benefit or has detrimentally acted in reliance thereon,' or where the 'promisor continues to retain the consideration from the original promisee. ...'" (Id. at p. 1025.) "'The test for determining whether a contract was made for the benefit of a third person is whether an intent to benefit a third person appears from the terms of the contract. If the terms of the contract necessarily require the promisor to confer a benefit on a third person, then the contract, and hence the parties thereto, contemplate a benefit to the third person.'" (Spinks v. Equity Residential Briarwood Apartments, supra, 171 Cal. App. 4th at p. 1022.) The third person need not be expressly identified in the contract. He or she must simply demonstrate membership in the class of persons for whose benefit the contract was made. (Id. at p. 1023.) There is no requirement that both contracting parties intend to benefit the third party. "'It is sufficient that the promisor must have understood that the promise had such intent.'" (Ibid.)