Tortious Interference with a Contract

A tortious interference with a contract happens when a personwho is not a party to a contract somehow influences one of thecontract parties to breach the contract. This only applies wherethere is a written contract between two or more parties. Considerthe following example of tortious interference with a contract:

Moonshine Coffeehouse Inc. and Aromatic Farms have alongstanding exclusive contract for the production and delivery oftheir “triple A” moonshine infused coffee beans.

Their contract calls for the delivery of all beans produceddomestic and foreign on Aromatic Farm’s to Moonshines distributionwarehouses for processing and redelivery to MoonshinesCoffeehouses. The parties agree that the price per pallet will be$3000 with guarantee of 4000 pallet minimum.

MJGreen House, Inc. a competitor of Aromatic approachesMoonshine and informs them that Aromatic is undercutting Moonshineby withholding 10% of their worldwide farm production for sale toits competitor coffeehouse Star Tracks Inc. for $2000 perpallet.    

Moonshine Coffeehouse Inc. as a result of this informationcancels the contract with Aromatic refusing to purchase any furtherpallets from Aromatic unless Aromatic provides the entire farmyield as agreed.

Would Aromatic have the standing to sue MJGreen House,Inc. for tortious interference with contract because MJGreen’sactions made Moonshine decide to breach the contract? YES, BecauseMJ Green knew about Aromatic Farms contract with moonshine coffeehouse and chose to expose aromatics dealings with StarTracks.

What would Aromatic have to prove to be able to holdMJGreen liable for tortious interference with thecontract?