Opinion ID: 1881875
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: This is an appeal from a summary judgment rendered in favor of the defendants by the district court. Julia L. Pettit and Linda J. Kemp, plaintiffs in the district court, and Ron Paxton and Victor Paxton, defendants in the district court, filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The district court denied Pettit and Kemp's motion for summary judgment, but granted summary judgment in favor of the Paxtons after finding that a real estate purchase agreement between Pettit and Kemp and a closely held family corporation, the Rodewald Ranch Corporation, was not a valid contract and that, therefore, Pettit and Kemp could not maintain an intentional interference with a business relationship action against the Paxtons. Pettit and Kemp appeal the district court's grant of summary judgment to the Paxtons and the denial of their motion for summary judgment. We affirm the judgment of the district court, albeit for a different reason, namely, that Pettit and Kemp failed to establish another essential element of the tort of intentional interference with a business relationship, i.e., a breach of the contract or termination of the business relationship at issue.