Tort/Negligence – Tortious Interference with Contract Claim – Partnership – Accounting Firm Break-Up – Unfair Trade Practices Claim

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Pete Fortner, PLLC v. Koonce Wooten & Haywood, LLP (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-16-0593, 14 pp.) (Cressie H. Thigpen Jr., J.) Appealed from Wake County Superior Court. (Shannon R. Joseph, J.) N.C. App. Unpub.

Holding: Where all the evidence showed that plaintiff’s former partner solicited a job with the defendant-accounting firm – not the other way around – plaintiff failed to show that defendant intentionally interfered with the contract between plaintiff and its former partner.

We affirm summary judgment for defendant.

Even though there was an indemnification clause in the contract between defendant and plaintiff’s former partner, the former partner testified that the clause was included at his suggestion because plaintiff had threatened litigation and the former partner believed the expense of litigation was his own responsibility and defendant was just an “innocent bystander[].” Plaintiff failed to show that defendant engaged in unfair trade practices.