Restatement (Second) Contracts §302 requisite assert 3rd-party beneficiary breach of contract claim against atty can be satisfied w/out beneficiary named in Will/contract if situation shows intent for non-named beneficiary to benefit from contract/will.

The plaintiffs brought a legal malpractice action against the defendant attorneys for their alleged failure to properly prepare the testamentary documents for the Estate of Robert H. Agnew. Specifically, the defendants allegedly failed to obtain the fully executed 2010 Trust Amendment, which provided that the residue of the trust assets would be distributed equally among the plaintiffs. The only claim that survived preliminary objections sounded in breach of contract, third party beneficiary. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants, finding that the plaintiffs had no standing to assert third party beneficiary status under the Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 302. Relying upon the decision in Gregg v. Lindsay, 649 A.2d 935 (Pa. Super. 1994), the trial court held that non-named beneficiaries could not satisfy the standing requirement absent a signed testamentary document naming the individuals. The Superior Court overruled the trial court’s decision, holding that, pursuant to Guy v. Liederbach, 459 A.2d 744 (Pa. 1983), a signed testamentary document was not required to satisfy the test set forth in Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 302 when the evidence of record supports “an inference that the [decedent] intended to give the [non-named beneficiaries] the benefit of his contract with” his estate attorney.

_{Case Law Alerts, 2^nd Quarter, April 2015}

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