✩ Tortious Interference With Expectancy: A New Solution To An Age Old Problem?
Posted: August 1st, 1999 by Adam R. GaslowitzAtlanta Bar Association, Estate Planning Section Breakfast, August 1999.
General Observations on the Future of Estate Litigation
I. Introduction
It obviously is well-established in Georgia law that parties to a contract have a right of action against one who has procured a breach or termination of that contract by the other party. The theory behind this doctrine is that the right to perform a contract and the right to reap the benefits resulting from the performance of such contract are property rights which are entitled to protection under the law. Therefore, you can bring a tort action for any injuries suffered as a result of the interference with such contract.
But what about interference with non-contractual relationships?
As it turns out, once the tort of intentional interference with contractual relations gained acceptance, courts across the country began to recognize the tort of intentional interference with inheritance or expectancy. The courts that have considered the point have reasoned that the law should afford as much protection to noncommercial expectancies as it does to commercial ones. And in fact, this cause of action seems to now be well-established in most states, notwithstanding a rather confusing history. As our own Supreme Court so eloquently put it back in 1915, “[n]ot only does the failure to permit such a cause of action give unnecessary protection to malice, but it also invites the courts to close their eyes to cause and effect and to a large segment of the realities of human affairs.”
Restatement (Second) of Torts, ch. 37A, ยง774B, has probably summarized this type of claim best:
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