Court of Chancery Limits Tortious Interference Claims
Tenneco Automotive Inc. v. El Paso Corporation, C.A. No. 18810-NC (Del. Ch. January 8, 2007).
When all else fails, claims of tortious interference with contact and fraudulent inducement seem to be the last resort to remedy a seeming inequity in how a contract has worked out. This case is an example of a plaintiff with a wrong in search of a remedy and having a hard time finding one.
The Court again limits the scope of a claim for tortious interference with contract by holding that a defendant cannot be charged with interfering with its own contract. Hence, the claims against that defendant were dismissed.
This decision also has an interesting discussion of when a parent may be responsible for the contract breaches of a subsidiary. It will be a rare case imposing such liability.
