American Towers Owners Ass'n v. CCI Mechanical, Inc

In American Towers Owners Ass'n v. CCI Mechanical, Inc., 930 P.2d 1182 (Utah 1996), the plaintiff in sought damages for losses incurred as a result of alleged faulty design and construction in the plumbing and electrical systems of a large condominium complex. Id. The plaintiff, however, "was not a direct party to any of the construction contracts with defendants and . . . there was no express language in the contracts establishing an intent to confer a special benefit on the plaintiff." Id. at 1187. Thus the success of the plaintiff's action in that case was dependent upon whether it was an intended third-party beneficiary. In American Towers . . . relief for defeated economic expectations under a design or construction contract was to come from the contract itself, not from third parties. We reasoned that to conclude otherwise would essentially impose the plaintiffs' "economic expectations upon parties whom the plaintiffs did not know and with whom they did not deal and upon contracts to which they were not a party." Id.