What Is Tortious Interference? Part 3

Transcript

Hi, this is Regina Campbell from The Campbell Law Group, and we're back here today to talk about the third part of our series on tortious interference. Today we're going to talk a little bit about tortious interference with a contractual relationship. It's very similar to tortious interference with an economic relationship, or an advantageous business relationship. However, as the name does imply, it does involve a contract.

So in this particular cause of action, the tortious interference is basically similar: you have a third party interfering in the contractual relationship of two other individuals. Usually it is a plaintiff that has a contract with a third party, and the defendant comes in and actually tries to cause a breach of that contract between the parties, intentionally. So they cause the plaintiff to lose a client, or lose a vendor, or disrupt a relationship that normally would have gone forward but for the defendant's actions.

So tortious interference with a contract, or a contractual relationship, is also very similar. You basically need a contract, and a defendant that knows of the contract, has knowledge of the contractual relationship, and intentionally, not negligently but intentionally, looks to interfere with that contractual relationship, causes a breach, and therefore causes damages to the plaintiff.

Also, with this particular cause of action, it's very important that negligent interference is not enough to actually raise a cause of action, or for it to be actionable. Also, pure competition will not be considered interference either. It has to be intentional interference, usually with information that the defendant has that he shouldn't have, in order to interfere with and cause a breach in that contract.

As with all tortious interference claims, and particularly business torts, the Achilles' heel is always causation and damages, which is the hardest part of the case, and we are going to go a little bit further into that in the next part of the series.