Opinion ID: 2180498
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: AeroGlobal's Superior Court Action

Text: On August 9, 2001, one day before the AeroGlobal LOI was to expire, AeroGlobal filed the instant action in the Superior Court against the defendants asserting four causes of action, including breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, tortious interference with contractual obligations and civil conspiracy. Aeroglobal subsequently filed a related action in the Superior Court, making substantially the same allegations against FIIB as it had made against the defendants in the instant action. [6] Upon the close of discovery, the defendants moved for summary judgment. At oral argument on the motion for summary judgment, counsel for AeroGlobal informed the Superior Court that AeroGlobal had received advance information concerning the Cirrus Board adopting the Second CHCL SPA prior to the Cirrus Board terminating the Aeroglobal LOI. AeroGlobal's counsel suggests that this information was the basis for the institution of the instant action. In any event, Cirrus did not formally notify AeroGlobal that it was terminating the AeroGlobal LOI until August 13, 2001, the same day on which Cirrus received payment of the $15 million cash infusion from Crescent under the Second CHCL SPA. At that point, Cirrus repaid the $12 million obtained from the bridge loan, along with interest on the principal and attorneys' fees, to AeroGlobal. The Superior Court granted summary judgement in favor of the defendants after it concluded that Cirrus did not breach its contractual obligations or its duty of good faith and fair dealing. Instead, the Superior Court found that it was AeroGlobal that failed to fulfill its contractual obligations by not immediately funding the entire $15 million bridge loan. The Superior Court also held, in the alternative, that the same result was required because AeroGlobal repudiated its deal with Cirrus prior to the consummation of the deal. The Superior Court further held that there was no predicate for AeroGlobal's tortious interference and civil conspiracy claims. It reasoned that the claims of tortious interference with contractual relations [7] and civil conspiracy [8] require the existence of a contractual and/or business relationship which was terminated or interrupted by wrongful conduct by one of the parties involved or a third party acting either separately or in concert. Because the Superior Court found no wrongdoing on the part of the defendants, it determined that there was no valid claim for tortious interference or civil conspiracy against the defendants.