Quote:
Originally Posted by
whusurdadi 
Hypothetical legal q...
Conne is a contractor doing an addition to my house, and Conne hires an electrician to do work. The electrician does the work, and comes to Conne to get paid. Conne says, uh no, too bad. Can the electrician sue me for the payment even though I didn't hire him?
The following addresses only pure contract law and not mechanic's/builder's liens, etc.
This is a delegation of duties for consideration (in other words, Conne and the electrician agreed that Conne would pay the electrician rather than Conne saying the electrician could collect payment from you).
In this hypothetical scenario, the electrician cannot collect from you, he must sue Conne.
BUT, if Conne made an agreement with the electrician that the electrician would do the work and be paid by you, this is a delegation of duties AND an assignment of rights. Here, he electrician would be able to collect directly from you. Of course there is a small complication that the electrician is only doing part of Conne's duties. What if Conne agreed to do the whole addition for $25k and now the electrician is claiming that it costs $26k for just the electrical work? In this scenario, I don't know what happens. I'm assuming he would sue you and the court would make you pay him whatever is reasonable. Then you could sue Conne.
