Opinion ID: 2519893
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Business Compulsion/Duress

Text: A party claiming economic duress must prove that it involuntarily accepted the terms offered by the other party, that the circumstances permitted no other alternative, and that the circumstances were the result of coercive acts of the other party. Isaak v. Idaho First Nat'l Bank, 119 Idaho 988, 989, 812 P.2d 295, 296 (Ct. App.1990), citing Lomas & Nettleton Co. v. Tiger Enterprises, 99 Idaho 539, 585 P.2d 949 (1978). The assertion of duress must be proven by evidence that the duress resulted from the defendant's wrongful and oppressive conduct and not by the plaintiff's necessities. Lomas, 99 Idaho at 542, 585 P.2d at 952. The offending conduct cited by Primary Health was Cynthia Dickinson's insistence that Ms. Huffman be accepted into the plan despite her late enrollment. According to Primary Health, it faced a Hobson's choice of either accepting Ms. Huffman's late enrollment, which all parties recognized was a catastrophic case that would cause severe hardship, or jeopardize the entire contract with the State, which Primary Health deemed it was ill equipped financially to endure. Mere financial embarrassment or reluctance to accept the offered terms do [sic] not constitute economic duress. Isaak, supra, 119 Idaho at 988, 812 P.2d at 295, citing Lomas, supra . Furthermore, we have held that a mere threat to withhold from a party a legal right which he has an adequate remedy to enforce will not constitute duress. Inland Empire Refineries, Inc. v. Jones, 69 Idaho 335, 339, 206 P.2d 519, 522 (1949). Such was the case here, in which the evidence established that Primary Health had a letter from its counsel advising that it was under no obligation to extend open enrollment or to accept Ms. Huffman as a member. [2] The record shows that Primary Health did not demonstrate that it had no alternative to accepting Ms. Huffman. The district court correctly held that a claim of duress had not been made.