1.4.2 Interference with Business Expectancies

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

Appellate decisions addressing the tort of interference with business expectancies are less common than the decisions regarding interferences with existing contracts. They are significant because they demonstrate the breadth of the tort as applied in Arizona and because they further exemplify the edge between "proper" and "improper."

This branch of the tort does not involve any particularly identifiable, existing contractual relations. It is intended mainly as additional protection against various kinds of unfair trade practices, such as product disparagement, passing off, trademark infringement, false advertising, misappropriation and the like.[fn61] While not always successful, the tort of interference with business expectancies has been brought in the context of an expectancy to purchase real property as well as in the context of an expectancy to sell real property.[fn62] The tort has been brought for interference with future customers where a business reporting agency published wrongful information about the plaintiff or where the boycott by the union caused the plaintiff to lose future sales.[fn63] The tort of interference with contractual relations has been brought by employees whose year-to-year contracts of employment were not renewed or whose expected promotion did not occur.[fn64] Physicians brought interference actions for interference with future patients.[fn65] Other examples include a claim for interference with future...