My own talk on tortious
interference with contract went well at the Midwest Law and Economics Association
meeting in Indy, even though the paper is
still at a rather early stage. I'm generally skeptical of the tort, except in the one
application where it is specifically disallowed in Section 766 of the
Restatement Second of Torts: marriage.
One who intentionally and improperly interferes with the performance of
a contract (except a contract to marry) between another and a third
person by inducing or otherwise causing the third person not to perform
the contract, is subject to liability to the other for the pecuniary
loss resulting to the other from the failure of the third person to
perform the contract.
This tort action would be useful to apply to situations where a rich woman breaks up
a marriage between a poor man and a poor woman. The rich adulteress could be sued by
the poor wife, who wouldn't have anything to gain by suing the poor husband. If the rich
adulteress really wanted the poor husband, she could have him, but only if she paid
compensation (and perhaps punitive damages). But this is disallowed.
My guess is that this is for the historical reason that many, perhaps most, states
abolished the actions of alienation of affections and breach of promise, so it seemed
that state legislatures usually wanted the exception for marriage contracts. Why states
abolished them is another interesting question. I touch on the laws a little in my
adultery article of a couple of years back.
By the way: this was the first conference I've attended where a majority of the audience had laptops out as they listened. Indeed, I don't remember even having more than 5 people with laptops out at any other conference. I wonder if we are leading a trend, or if it's just that people who enjoy law and economics conference in Indianapolis are nerdier even than the average economist or lawyer? [ permalink, http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/03.10.11b.htm ]
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