Torts Keyed to Prosser
Della Penna v. Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc
Facts
The Plaintiff is a distributor of automobiles. The Defendant made a policy whereby no United States Toyoda dealer could sell Lexus cars to parties outside the United States. * The Defendant compiled a list of parties who broke this policy and distributed it to all the franchise owners. The Defendant said that if the franchise owners did business with the parties on the list, they would face sanctions from the Defendant, up to and including, the loss of the franchise. * The Plaintiff’s name was on the list of offenders. The Plaintiff lost much of its business because the Plaintiff was on the list. * The Plaintiff sued the Defendant. The trial court gave the jury an instruction that, for the jury to rule in favor of the Plaintiff, they must find that the Defendant’s actions were “wrongful”. The court defined “wrongful” as “outside the act of legitimate business transactions”. The jury ruled in favor of the Defendant. This was a departure from the usual instructions that required “. . .the defendant [to] intentionally engage[ ] in acts designed to interfere with or disrupt the relationship”
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