Smith and Roberson's Business Law 16th Edition by Richard Mann,Barry Roberts

Exercise 16

Members of Local 100, Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), began an 11-day mass transit strike that paralyzed the life and commerce of the city of Ne wYork. Plaintiffs are engaged in the practice of law as a profession, maintaining offices in Manhattan. Plaintiffs sue both individually and on behalf of all other professional and business entities (the class) that were damaged as a consequence of the defendants' willful disruption of the service provided by the public transportation system of the City of New York. The law firm sought to recover as a third-party beneficiary of the collective bargaining agreement between the union and New York City. The agreement contains a no-strike clause and states that the TWU agreed to cooperate with the city to provide a safe, efficient, and dependable mass transit system. As a member of the public which depends on the public transit system and which employs dozens of persons who need the public transit system to get to and from work, plaintiffs argue that they are within the class of persons for whose benefit the TWU has promised to provide "dependable transportation service." Are the members of the class action suit entitled to recover? Explain.