Other Claims
Other Claims That May Arise in the Context of a Breach of Contract Case
When a contract is breached, there may be other injurious conduct that the breaching party or parties have engaged in that may constitute a separate claim for damages, separate from, and in addition to those under the contract. Other claims that may arise in the context of a contract breach include:
TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH CONTRACTUAL RELATIONS
Tortious Interference with Contractual Relations is a type of claim that arises when a third party intentionally disrupts, hinders, or interferes with a known and existing contractual relationship between the original two parties, causing harm or damage. In essence, it involves the intentional interference by a non-contracting party with the rights of the contracting parties to freely enter into and maintain contractual agreements.
FRAUD AND CONSPIRACY
Claims for Fraud and Conspiracy in conjunction with a breach of contract may arise where there is not only a failure to fulfill contractual obligations but there is also an intentional misrepresentation, deceit, or fraudulent conduct. While a breach of contract typically deals with the failure to perform contractual duties, a fraud claim suggests that one party, or in the case of conspiracy, multiple parties, intentionally misled or deceived the other during the formation or performance of the contract.
CONVERSION
Conversion is a legal concept that typically involves wrongful interference with another person’s property, leading to the deprivation of the owner’s rights. Claiming conversion in conjunction with a breach of contract suggests that the breach resulted in the wrongful taking, use, or interference with property that belongs to the injured party.
DEFAMATION
Defamation and breach of contract are distinct legal claims, but they can intersect in certain situations. Defamation, in conjunction with breach of contract action typically involves additional allegations that false statements of fact were made by one party during the contractual relationship that have caused harm to the good name, reputation, products, or services of the other party, resulting in additional damages beyond the mere breach.
MALICIOUS PROSECUTION
Proving malicious prosecution in the context of a breach of contract case is a challenging endeavor, because malicious prosecution typically pertains to wrongful and malicious initiation of criminal or civil proceedings. However, it may be possible to assert a malicious prosecution claim, if the breach of contract case involved the malicious filing of baseless or unfounded legal actions against the alleged breaching party when in fact no breach of contract has occurred.
ABUSE OF PROCESS
Abuse of process is somewhat similar to malicious prosecution and generally arises when legal proceedings are initiated with an ulterior motive or misused for an improper purpose. In the context of a breach of a contract case, claiming abuse of process would typically involve alleging that the legal proceedings initiated by the other party were not genuinely aimed at resolving a contractual dispute but were instead used as a tool for harassment, coercion, or some ulterior motive unrelated to the specific contract being litigated.
PRIMA FACIE TORT
Prima facie tort is a legal doctrine that allows a party to bring a cause of action for harm that is intentionally inflicted, without a lawful excuse or justification, causing injury to the plaintiff. Unlike traditional torts, prima facie tort does not require proof of a specific traditional tort such as negligence, defamation, or intentional infliction of emotional distress. In the context of a breach of contract, asserting a prima facie tort claim would typically involve alleging intentional and unjustified harm beyond the contractual breach that is of an extreme and outrageous nature.
INTENTIONAL INFLICTION OF EMOTIONAL DISTRESS
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED) is a tort that also requires extreme and outrageous conduct intentionally causing severe emotional distress. It is important to note that such claims in the context of a breach of contract are relatively uncommon, as the nature of a contractual dispute is typically focused on the breach of the contractual terms and obligations rather than on intentional infliction of emotional distress. However, under certain circumstances, a party might attempt to assert an IIED claim alongside a breach of contract allegation and together with other similar extra-contractual claims where the intention to cause harm, harassment, coercion, or some other ulterior motive exists, outside of, in addition to, or unrelated to that caused by the breach of contract itself.
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