INTER PARTES. This, in a technical sense, signifies an agreement professing
in the outset, and before any stipulations are introduced, to be made
between such and such persons as, for example, " This Indenture, made the
_____ day of _____ 1848, between A B of the one part, and C D of the other."
It is true that every contract is in one sense inter partes, because to be
valid there must be two parties at least; but the technical sense of this
expression is as above mentioned. Addis. on Contr. 9.
2. This being a solemn declaration, the effect of such introduction. is
to make all the covenants, comprised in a deed to be covenants between the
parties and none others; so that should a stipulation be found in the body
of a deed by which "the said A B covenants with E F to pay him one hundred
dollars," the words "with E F" are inoperative, unless they have been used
to denote for whose benefit the stipulation may have been made, being in
direct contradiction with what was previously declared, and C D alone can
sue for the non-payment; it being a maxim that where two opposite intentions
are expressed in a contract, the first in order shall prevail. 8 Mod. 116; 1
Show. 58; 3 Lev. 138; Carth. 76; Roll. R. 196; 7 M. & IV. 63; But this rule
does not 'apply to simple contracts inter partes. 2 D . & R. 277; 3 D. & R.
273 Addis. on Contr. 244, 256.
3. When there are more than two sides to a contract inter partes, for
example, a deed; as when it is made between A B, of the first part; C D, of
the second; and E F, of the third, there is no objection to one covenanting
with another in exclusion of the third. See 5 Co. 182; 8 Taunt. 245; 4 Ad. &
Ell. N. S. 207; Addis. on Contr. 267.