Opinion ID: 195499
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The ch. 93A Claim

Text: 25 As noted above, the district court premised its entry of summary judgment against NASCO on the ch. 93A claim on its conclusion that PSI did not breach the Agreement. Because the court erred in reaching this conclusion at the summary judgment stage, we cannot rely upon its reasoning to affirm the summary judgment ruling on the ch. 93A claim. 26 PSI nonetheless argues, as it did before the district court, that we should affirm the entry of summary judgment in its favor on NASCO's ch. 93A claim because (1) the claim is governed by ch. 93A, Sec. 11; and (2) ch. 93A, Sec. 11 requires that objectionable conduct reach a level of rascality not present here. More particularly, PSI contends that, in a breach of contract situation, liability does not attach under ch. 93A, Sec. 11 unless a defendant knowingly breached a contract in order to secure additional benefits to itself to the detriment of a plaintiff. See Atkinson v. Rosenthal, 33 Mass.App. 219, 598 N.E.2d 666, 670 (1992) (There is in those decisions [imposing liability under ch. 93A, Sec. 11] a consistent pattern of the use of a breach of contract as a lever to obtain advantage for the party committing the breach in relation to the other party; i.e., the breach of contract has an extortionate quality that gives it the rancid element of unfairness. In the absence of conduct having that quality, a failure to perform obligations [under a contract], even though deliberate and for reasons of self-interest, does not present an occasion for invocation of ch. 93A remedies.) (citation omitted). 27 The difficulty with PSI's argument is that, even if we credit all of its premises, we believe that a reasonable jury could conclude from the evidence in this case that PSI breached the Agreement in order to obtain for itself unbargained-for benefits to the detriment of NASCO. Four facts in particular inform this decision. First, as we stated in the preceding section of this opinion, a reasonable jury could find that, irrespective of whether or not PSI paid the $20,000.00 deposit, the Agreement became viable and enforceable when PSI's Assistant Secretary signed it and delivered it to NASCO. Second, a reasonable jury could conclude that PSI was contractually obligated to hand over the $20,000.00 deposit at the same time it delivered to NASCO a copy of the fully executed Agreement. Third, a reasonable jury could find that NASCO desperately needed the Agreement to go forward in order to extricate itself from its dire financial straits. And fourth, a reasonable jury could find that PSI was fully cognizant of NASCO's desperate financial situation. On the basis of these facts, and others noted above, we think that a reasonable jury could infer that PSI (1) signed the Agreement in order to obligate NASCO to deliver the property to it for $3,575,000.00, if PSI so chose; 8 (2) intentionally breached its obligation to pay the $20,000.00 deposit, knowing full well that NASCO was in no position to repudiate the Agreement on the basis of PSI's non-payment of the deposit; (3) used the period of time after the signing of the Agreement to investigate the property further and to determine whether it should honor the Agreement; and (4) then used its wrongful non-payment of the deposit in order to avoid its obligations under the Agreement. In other words, we believe that a reasonable jury could find that PSI manipulated the situation so as to create for itself, at no cost, both a fully enforceable option to buy the property and a textual basis for repudiating the agreement at its discretion. This was more than PSI bargained for; moreover, it deprived NASCO, at the least, of $20,000.00 to which NASCO was contractually entitled. 9 28 Accordingly, we vacate the district court's entry of summary judgment on NASCO's ch. 93A claim, and remand for a trial on the merits.