Tortious Interference with the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing

The Chancery Daily flagged a pending case in the Delaware Court of Chancery, NAMA Holdings, LLC v. Related WMC, LLC, et al., involving a claim for “tortious interference with the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” A Westlaw search reveals that this is not an entirely novel claim. The earliest instance of such a claim appears to be Haynal v. Target Stores, 1996 WL 806706 (S.D.Cal.,1996), and the federal court drop-kicked the claim: ”Plaintiff’s attempt to convert a contract action into a tort action is not supported by law.” Two other courts note the claim, but neither addresses its merits. No law review articles discuss the claim, and even Google shows no results … well, until this post gets included in the search results.

Of course, lots of cases involve claims of “tortious interference with contract” and “breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” The arguments against recognizing tortious interference with contract would seem to apply to a claim of ”tortious interference with the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing,” but if you are willing to recognize the one, is there a reason not to recognize the other?