Construction projects often involve a web of contracts between project owners, prime contractors, subcontractors and sub-subcontractors. Privity of contract rarely exists between all parties. The rights of a subcontractor or sub-subcontractor can include relief against parties that they are not in privty of contract with. For example, a lien action allows a subcontractor to assert a claim against the property owner regardless of whether a contract exists between the owner and the subcontractor. Recently, in the case of Exterior Erecting Services, Inc. v. Metroplolitan Regional Counsel of Carpenters of the Philadelphia Vicinty et al., the Sussex County Superior Court held that the reverse is not necessarily true – i.e. a property owner or prime contractor cannot assert a claim pursuant to a subcontract unless they are a party to that subcontract. Moreover, the Court held that an agreement to pay a sub-subcontractor by way of joint check from the prime contractor to the subcontractor and sub-subcontractor does not establish privity of contract. Rather, this 'joint check agreement' pertains only to the manner in which the sub-subcontractor chose to be paid – not the intent of the prime contractor to step into a contractual relationship with the sub-subcontractor.
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