Opinion ID: 1613344
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Intentional Interference With Contractual Relations Claim.

Text: Part of the expenses to be covered by the $104,000 operating loan included two payments to Connecticut General on the Jackson farm first mortgage. The Jacksons simply claim that the bank interfered with their contract (mortgage) with Connecticut General when the bank refused to advance any further funds under the operating note. The damage they claim, of course, is the loss of their farm because they had no funds to pay Connecticut General. One element of this tort is that the bank improperly interfered with an existing contract. See Toney v. Casey's General Stores, Inc., 460 N.W.2d 849, 852 (Iowa 1990). In view of our holding in division II, the bank violated no contractual provision under the note when it refused to advance any further funds because it deemed itself insecure. In short, the bank hadas a matter of lawthe right to do what it did. In these circumstances, refusing to advance the funds was not, as a matter of law, improper. Because there was substantial evidence lacking on the improper interference element, the district court should have likewise sustained the bank's motion for directed verdict or judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Its failure to do so was also error.