Opinion ID: 1196440
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: comparable precedent: truthfulness as a dispositive concept

Text: In the myriad of present intentional interference with contract cases, none is found in which a subcontractor went to the owner to ensure non-award so that the subcontractor could escape a contractually inopportune bid. [5] A case involving similar aspects is Leek v. Brasfield, 226 Ark. 316, 290 S.W.2d 632 (1956), where the defendant's land was upstream from plaintiff. Someone cut a dam above plaintiff's location in the water course which reduced ponding of water out onto defendant's land. Plaintiff further wanted the dam repaired to protect from downstream flooding. The county commissioners agreed and hired a contractor to repair the dam. The defendant reciprocated from his upstream landowner status by running the contractor off the construction site by threat of an expensive lawsuit. When the flood came, plaintiff was damaged down below the damaged dam and he sued defendant for scaring the contractor through suggestion of litigation not to take the county contract which had been presented to repair the dam. Following jury consideration, the damaged landowner plaintiff won. The Arkansas Supreme Court recognized that the wrongful conduct in preventing repair was just as injurious to appellee (plaintiff) as the wrongful act committed by whomever of cutting the dam originally. Words caused action and precisely that result also occurs here where the subcontractor went to the city with the unquestioned purpose of stopping the award of Four Nines' contract on the basis of the bid in order to be relieved of performance responsibility on its own contract. Here, as in Leek, the issue was properly presented for jury decision. Furthermore, it is apparent that the so-called truth defense of Restatement (Second) of Torts, supra, § 772(a) is subject to content and circumstances. One of those circumstances can be Restatement (Second) of Torts, supra, § 772(b)  whether solicited  which is not in any regard discussed in the majority opinion. The historic case of Knickerbocker Ice Co. of Baltimore City v. Gardiner Dairy Co. of Baltimore City, 107 Md. 556, 69 A. 405 (1908) has some similarities where a supplier of ice stated that it would cease deliveries to the dairy unless the dairy's customer discontinued business with the plaintiff. The resulting damage verdict was sustained. Perhaps the principal circumstance is the inquiry regarding intent with which the action is taken. Williams v. Chittenden Trust Co., 145 Vt. 76, 484 A.2d 911 (1984). Intent to interfere with a contractual relationship exists if the actor acts for the primary purpose of interfering with the performance of the contract, and also if he [or she] desires to interfere, even though he [or she] acts for some other purpose in addition. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 766 comment j (1979). Intent also exists if the actor does not act with the desire to interfere with the contract but knows that interference will be substantially certain to occur as a result of his or her action. Id. Id. 484 A.2d at 914. That court considered the advice and suggestions where the offending actor offered to do the work for less in architectural planning. True enough, the advice simply indicated that the architect would do the work for less. The court said: The defendant also argues that its interference was not improper because it merely rendered honest advice to the owner, which, it argues, is allowed under § 772 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts. We think, however, that the plaintiff presented sufficient evidence for the jury to find that the defendant's actions went beyond mere advice, and instead constituted architectural services. The defendant prepared sketches, plans and detailed drawings for the project. Therefore, we reject the defendant's argument. Id. at 915 (footnote omitted). The subject is similarly addressed in Scussel v. Balter, 386 So.2d 1227, 1228-29 (Fla.App. 1980) (footnote omitted): Scussel secondly suggests that his actions were protected by the privilege afforded an agent who, upon request, gives honest advice that it is in his principal's best interests to breach an existing relationship. See 4 Restatement (Second) of Torts § 772(b) (1979). We find, however, that the showings in the record of Scussel's active involvement in Wolf's affairs and of his personal motivations and ulterior purposes for securing Wolf's withdrawal from his undertaking with Balter demonstrate the inapplicability of this principle. See London Guarantee & Accident Co. v. Horn, 206 Ill. 493, 69 N.E. 526 (1903); Morgan v. Andrews, 107 Mich. 33, 64 N.W. 869 (1895); W. Prosser, Law of Torts § 129 text and authorities at 944, nn. 5-7 (4th ed. 1971). The relationship of the truth defense to an affirmed judgment for tortious interference was also recognized in Pony Exp. Cab & Bus, Inc. v. Ward, 841 F.2d 207, 209, aff'd 845 F.2d 1025 (8th Cir.1988) (quoting Pony Express Cab & Bus, Inc. v. Ward, 662 F. Supp. 85, 89 (D.Neb. 1987)), were the actor's statement to the third-party customer was `a primary reason for the denial of the contract   .' The court recognized in footnote that the theory of defamation or business slander overlapped intentional interference with a business expectancy, and truth, as an absolute defense in defamation, did not have the same effectiveness in tortious interference defense. See likewise Walsh v. Glendale Federal Sav. & Loan Ass'n, 1 Cal. App.3d 578, 81 Cal. Rptr. 804 (1969), which recognized that in regard to furnishing credit information, tortious action also falls more completely within Restatement (Second) of Torts, supra, § 772(b). The court in Chaves v. Johnson, 230 Va. 112, 335 S.E.2d 97, 103 (1985) was unpersuaded by a freedom-of-speech argument as a defense to the intentional interference: The tort complained of here is an intentional wrong to the property rights of another, accomplished by words, not defamatory in themselves, but employed in pursuance of a scheme designed wrongfully to enrich the speaker at the expense of the victim. The law provides a remedy in such cases, and the constitutional guarantees of free speech afford no more protection to the speaker than they do to any other tortfeasor who employes words to commit a criminal or a civil wrong. The Chaves case has some similarity to our present situation where, involving contracting with a city, the defendant competitor as an architect advised the city that the plaintiff's charges were excessive and his experience insufficient. The court found a written communication on the subject not to be defamatory in consideration of free speech and truth, but rejected the defense of truth and taxpayer privilege in reversing an appellate court decision which had reversed the original verdict in favor of the plaintiff. Truthfulness under Restatement (Second) of Torts, supra, § 772(a) is not alone the test since the actual communication involved at least a questionably valid underbid statement and then included general advice and opinion, including comments about litigation. [6] Consequently, the requirements and function of Restatement (Second) of Torts, supra, § 772(a) and (b) and the intrinsic function of Restatement (Second) of Torts, supra, § 766B are called into analysis. Reliance on Restatement (Second) of Torts, supra, § 772(a) alone is inappropriate and certainly Restatement (Second) of Torts, supra, § 772(b) would be irrelevant under the circumstances because of the failure to meet the first requirement that [the] advice be requested,   . Restatement (Second) of Torts, supra, § 772(b). The privilege [of truth] is conditional and if the occasion were used not to give bona fide advice, but to injure the plaintiff for any ulterior reason, the defendant should lose his privilege and therefore fail in his defense. Carpenter, supra, 41 Harv.L.Rev. at 749-50 (citing Northern Wisconsin Co-op. Tobacco Pool v. Bekkedal, 182 Wis. 571, 197 N.W. 936 (1923) and Holmes, supra, 8 Harv.L.Rev. at 6). This difference is of the essence in this case. The city did not go to 71 Construction. We have unsolicited conduct of 71 Construction in going to the city to raise the specter of litigation and bad workmanship that provided the atmosphere upon which the intentional interference complaint existed and the contractual loss occurred. None of the three criteria for application of Restatement (Second) of Torts, supra, § 772(b) exists in this case: (1) that advice be requested,  it was not; (2) that the advice given be within the scope of the request  it was not; and (3) that the advice be honest  at best, we have a factual decision based upon exactly what the representative of 71 Construction said in order to secure a rebid decision by the city and a release of the subcontractor from the onerous burden of its subcontract proposal. In Basin Elec. Power Co-op.- Missouri Basin Power Project, 603 P.2d at 404, we set the parameters of the cause of action: (1) the existence of the contract; (2) defendant's knowledge of the contract; (3) intentional interference with plaintiff's contract without justification; and (4) resulting damages. In that case the issue was justification, and we said: In considering the question of interference with a contract this court has never attempted to define as a matter of law what constitutes reasonable justification for interference with a contract. Id. (citing Wartensleben, 415 P.2d 613; Board of Trustees of Weston County School Dist. No. 1, Weston County v. Holso, 584 P.2d 1009, reh. denied 587 P.2d 203 (Wyo. 1978); and Kvenild v. Taylor, 594 P.2d 972 (Wyo. 1979)). Furthermore, we then said: Nor will we attempt to formulate any hard and fast definitions for the term in the case at bar. The term justification is broad and the question of whether there was an unjustified interference depends upon the facts of each case. Basin Elec. Power Co-op.- Missouri Basin Power Project, 603 P.2d at 404. And then we quoted with approval the general rule from Carnes v. St. Paul Union Stock-Yards Co., 164 Minn. 457, 205 N.W. 630, 632, reh'g denied 164 Minn. 457, 206 N.W. 396 (1925): The courts have not attempted to formulate a rule by which justification or lack of justification may be determined, but have said that in general the issue is largely one of fact for the jury; the standard being reasonable conduct under all the circumstances of the case. Basin Elec. Power Co-op.- Missouri Basin Power Project, 603 P.2d at 405. We further quoted from Royal Realty Company v. Levin, 244 Minn. 288, 69 N.W.2d 667, 673 (1955):    We need not here concern ourselves with what constitutes sufficient justification. The term is not susceptible of any precise definition, and normally it is a question of fact for the jury's determination. In any event, the general view is that the burden of proving sufficient justification for the interference rests on the defendants. Basin Elec. Power Co-op.- Missouri Basin Power Project, 603 P.2d at 405. We further noted that the authors of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, supra, § 766 lacked clarity even after they substituted improperly interferes. Basin Elec. Power Co-op.- Missouri Basin Power Project, 603 P.2d at 405. [7] While we do not find this change of language particularly helpful in our inquiry, it still is consistent with the view that however the tort of interference is expressed  whether as conduct without justification, without privilege, or merely improper  the question is one of fact rather than one of law.    Good cause, good faith, reasonable conduct, all appear to us to involve factual and not legal determinations. On this question of law versus fact, this remark in 4 Restatement of the Law of Torts, § 767, p. 38, comment 1 (1979), is pertinent:    The analogy to negligence continues to hold in the situations where no recognized privilege has been formulated. Here [tortious interference with a contract], as with negligence, when there is room for different views, the determination of whether the interference was improper or not is ordinarily left to the jury, to obtain its common feel for the state of community mores and for the manner in which they would operate upon the facts in question. Id. at 405. We again considered the function of justification in Texas West Oil and Gas Corp. v. Fitzgerald, 726 P.2d 1056 (Wyo. 1986) ( Texas West I ) (majority and dissenting opinion). See, however, Dobbs, Tortious Interference with Contractual Relationships, 34 Ark.L.Rev. 335 (1980). Truthfulness when said to be some kind of excuse for harmful action cannot be extracted from propriety and justification.