from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Privy \Priv"y\, n.; pl. {Privies}.
1. (Law) A partaker; a person having an interest in any
action or thing; one who has an interest in an estate
created by another; a person having an interest derived
from a contract or conveyance to which he is not himself a
party. The term, in its proper sense, is distinguished
from party. --Burrill. --Wharton.
[1913 Webster]
2. A necessary house or place for performing excretory
functions in private; an outhouse; a backhouse.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
PRIVIES. Persons who are partakers, or have an interest in any action or
thing, or any relation to another. Wood, Inst. b. 2, c. 3, p. 255; 2 Tho.
Co. Lit. 506 Co. Lit. 271, a.
2. There aye several kinds of privies, namely, privies in blood, as the
heir is to the ancestor; privies in representation, as is the executor or
administrator to the deceased privies in estate, as the relation between the
donor and donee, lessor and lessee; privies in respect to contracts; and
privies on account of estate and contract together. Tho. Co. Lit. 506;
Prest. Con v. 327 to 345. Privies have also been divided into privies in
fact, and privies in law. 8 Co. 42 b. Vide Vin. Ab. Privily; 5 Coin. Dig.
347; Ham. on Part. 131; Woodf. Land. & Ten. 279, 1 Dane's Ab. c. 1, art. 6.