Tortious Interference

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The managing member and president of an LLC could not be liable for tortious interference with contract for firing the Plaintff. "A party to a contract, including the party’s managing agent, cannot be liable for wrongful interference of the contract." The defendant was not an outsider to the contract, and therefore could not be liable for wrongful interference for firing the Plaintiff

The Court dismissed Plaintiff’s unfair and deceptive practices claim, ruling that it was outside the scope of the statute because it involved securities claims and employer-employee relations.

Full…

Continue Reading Palles v. Hatteras Investment Partners LLC, July 27, 2009 (Tennille)(unpublished)

North Carolina does not recognize the "cardinal change doctrine" in government contract cases.

The Court also dismissed a claim for tortious interference with contract against a consultant who had advised the owner not to pay the Plaintiff for its work on a construction project.  The Court found the alleged interference to be justified, even though the Plaintiff alleged it was not. Judge Diaz ruled that Plaintiff’s allegation as to the lack of justification was "a legal conclusion the Court need not accept," and that Plaintiff’s allegations on this point were…

Continue Reading Crowder Construction Co. v. City of Charlotte, March 11, 2009 (Diaz)(unpublished)

There was no tortious interference contract claim against a defendant who sold product to plaintiff’s competitor.  This was a legitimate exercise of the defendant’s rights.

There was no claim for negligence, or negligent misrepresentation, against the defendant because the plaintiff’s claims were for breach of warranty and covered by the UCC, and also because of the economic loss rule.  Judge Tennille held:

This is a breach of warranty case. The complaint alleges any statements were made in the course of the contractual representation. It fails to establish any independent duty running

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Continue Reading Gateway Management Services, Ltd. v. Advanced Lubrication Technology, Inc., June 19, 2008 (Tennille)(unpublished)

Claims against the lender which had financed an acquisition gone awry were barred by the exculpatory provisions of a subordination agreement.  Georgia law applied, and Georgia law permits one contracting party to waive all recourse in the event of breach by the other.  The exculpatory provision was valid and an absolute defense to plaintiffs’ claims, and the Court granted the Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss.

Plaintiffs did not have a claims for the breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, because the assertion of valid rights under an…

Continue Reading Webb v. Royal American Company, LLC, March 17, 2008 (unpublished)

The Court granted a Motion to Dismiss a claim for slander, ruling that plaintiff had failed to plead the allegedly defamatory statement with sufficient particularity. It held that, although plaintiff was not required to plead the words verbatim, it was required to plead them either substantially as they were said or at least with sufficient particularity to determine whether the statement was defamatory. The Court held that "it would be unduly harsh to require defendants to venture a response to weighty allegations of slander couched only in the most general…

Continue Reading Webb Builders, LLC v. Jones, January 24, 2002 (Tennille)(unpublished)

The issue was whether a letter formed an enforceable contract. After a thorough discussion of the elements of a valid contract, the Court found that the letter lacked mutual assent as to material elements necessary to create an enforceable contract, including the price to be paid, identification of the parties, and the subject matter of the contract. The letter merely expressed the intent and desires of the parties, rather than their agreement.

Plaintiff therefore could not state a claim for tortious interference with contract.

Nor could plaintiff proceed on its promissory…

Continue Reading Epes v. Healthsouth Corp, February 8, 2008 (Tennille)(unpublished)

Plaintiff sued a departed employee, alleging that she had violated her confidentiality agreement and her non-competition agreement. The Court found defendant’s new employer had not tortiously interfered with her contract. It found the provision on which plaintiff relied, restricting its employees from providing services to any of its clients for 180 days following the termination of employment, to be invalid, because it attempted to restrict defendant from providing services to any client of her former employer, even those with whom she had no contact during her employment.

The Court found…

Continue Reading CNC/Access, Inc. v. Scruggs, 2006 NCBC 20 (N.C. Super. Ct. Nov. 15, 2006)(Tennille)

The Court granted summary judgment on plaintiff’s claim for interference with prospective economic advantage. The Court found that there was a "high standard" for such a claim, and that plaintiff was required to show, with specificity, the future contracts that plaintiff would have obtained but for the alleged interference.

Plaintiff’s claim for interference with its existing contracts also failed, because the alleged contracts were simply purchase orders from customers for goods. The mere acknowledgment or receipt of a purchase order does not create a contractual obligation.

Furthermore, the allegedly breaching…

Continue Reading Sports Quest, Inc. v. Dale Earnhardt, Inc., 2004 NCBC 4 (N.C. Super. Ct. Mar. 12, 2004)(Tennille)

The plaintiff claimed that the defendant caused its business to fail. The defendant asserted plaintiff’s business had failed because he used illegal drugs, had extramarital affairs, and because he "had a propensity to sleep and fish during the day."

When the defendant sought to question the owner of the plaintiff about these matters at his deposition, he took the Fifth Amendment. The defendant claimed it was entitled to a complete dismissal of plaintiff’s claims as a result, but the Court determined that dismissal was not the appropriate remedy. Instead, the…

Continue Reading Sports Quest, Inc. v. Dale Earnhardt, Inc., 2004 NCBC 3 (N.C. Super. Ct. Feb. 12, 2004)(Tennille)

The Court found that the actions of the defendants in pirating away employees and accounts of the plaintiff exceeded the bounds of fair and ethical competition and therefore constitute unfair and deceptive practices.

The Court referred to defendants’ conduct as "surreptitious and intentional," and undertaken while the employees solicited were still employed by the plaintiff. This activity had enabled the plaintiff to build competitive operations in a matter of days, through its "orchestrated, en masse, secret recruitment."

On the trade secret claim, the Court found that the plaintiffs’ "compilation of…

Continue Reading Sunbelt Rentals, Inc. v. Head & Enquist Equipment, L.L.C., 2003 NCBC 4 (N.C. Super. Ct. May 2, 2003)(Tennille)