Court Opinion

ID: 9607793
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:02:03.154189+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:40.447363
License: Public Domain

THOMAS, Chief Justice,
specially concurring.
I concur in the affirmance of the judgment against D.N. Fitzgerald. Recognizing the significance of the problems which have been raised in the dissenting opinion of Justice Urbigkit, especially the law’s requirement that there be wrongful interference which causes breach of an existing contract, the record does disclose that subsequent to the events early in 1982 Texas West Oil and Gas Corporation and Oil Patch Sales and Rentals of Wyoming, Inc., were discussing resolutions to their situation. A part of those discussions involved an adjustment to the contract in the nature of a novation. In this regard Instruction No. 12 advised the jury as follows:
“In Wyoming the party has the right to be free from the intentional interference with the right to conduct negotiations that have a reasonable probability of resulting in a contract.”
It appears to have been arguable that the security interest held by the First Interstate Bank of Casper, N.A. did not extend to the work in progress, i.e., the drilling rig. The Bank then expended substantial effort in obtaining an amendment to the security agreement and financing statement, the effect of which was to make the drilling rig unequivocally subject to the security agreement. The record would justify the jury’s conclusion that this was done at the insistence of Fitzgerald, and would also justify a conclusion that the extension of the security interest to the drilling rig inhibited and perhaps prevented the efforts of Texas West Oil and Gas Corporation and Oil Patch Sales and Rentals of Wyoming, Inc., to resolve their differences by substituting a different contractual arrangement. I am satisfied that the facts and the law do support the jury’s determination that there was wrongful interference by D.N. Fitzgerald.1
I must dissent from the disposition by this court which remands the case for a new trial on the issue of damages only. The district court ordered a remittitur or in the alternative a new trial. Whether the new trial should be a complete new trial or a limited new trial is a matter which I perceive to be placed within the discretion of the district judge and which may well depend upon his perception of how much leverage is required to induce the plaintiff to accept the remittitur.
*1066The trial court has wide discretion concerning the propriety of granting a new trial. Cody v. Atkins, Wyo., 658 P.2d 59, 63-64 (1983). I do not read the majority opinion as reaching a conclusion that there was an abuse of the trial court’s discretion in this regard. I do not think the record would justify such a conclusion. Yet, in the absence of that conclusion what has occurred is that this court has substituted its discretion for that of the district court. Since principles of jurisprudence foreclose the substitution of our discretion for that of the district court, I would remand the case for a new trial on both the issues of liability and damages.

. Whether interference is without justification or improper is a question of fact for the jury not one of law. Basin Electric Power Cooperative-Missouri Basin Power Project v. Howton, Wyo., 603 P.2d 402, 404-405 (1979). One in Fitzgerald’s position is entitled to all of the Bank's rights on an obligation which he has guaranteed when he satisfies it, but he has no lawful basis for enhancing or creating any rights.