PUBLICITY AGENT FOR A BROADWAY SHOW BREACHED THE COVENENT OF GOOD FAITH AND FAIR DEALING BY SENDING EMAILS TO AN INVESTOR DESIGNED TO SINK THE PRODUCTION.

The First Department, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Friedman, determined a publicity agent for a broadway show breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing implicit in the agent’s contract with the show’s producer. The agent, Thibodeau, sent emails to an investor which were intended to sink the project, and the investor pulled out. The defamation and tortious interference causes of action will go to trial. But the breach of contract cause of action was demonstrated as a matter of law. The plaintiff is a limited partnership formed to put on the show, RBLP:

The record establishes that Thibodeau, without RBLP’s authorization, and using confidential information he had obtained as a result of his employment as RBLP’s press representative, sent an email directly to Runsdorf, a key potential investor who had desired to remain anonymous, causing Runsdorf to withdraw his financial commitment, all of which resulted in the cancellation of rehearsals and the play’s failure to open. Even assuming that his conduct did not violate the express terms of his agreement to act as the play’s press representative, Thibodeau breached the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing by essentially defeating the purpose of the agreement by his actions … . Thibodeau was hired by RBLP to use his public relations skills to facilitate the production of a play; his actions, in which he made use of confidential information that RBLP had entrusted to him in the course of his employment, made it impossible for RBLP to produce the play as planned. It is difficult to imagine a plainer case of a party to a contract utterly defeating the purpose for which the other party had entered into that contract, or a more blatant example of an agent’s disloyalty to his principal .. . Rebecca Broadway L.P. v Hotton, 2016 NY Slip Op 05839, 1st Dept 8-18-16

CONTRACT LAW (PUBLICITY AGENT FOR A BROADWAY SHOW BREACHED THE COVENENT OF GOOD FAITH AND FAIR DEALING BY SENDING EMAILS TO AN INVESTOR DESIGNED TO SINK THE PRODUCTION)/COVENANT OF GOOD FAITH AND FAIR DEALING (PUBLICITY AGENT FOR A BROADWAY SHOW BREACHED THE COVENENT OF GOOD FAITH AND FAIR DEALING BY SENDING EMAILS TO AN INVESTOR DESIGNED TO SINK THE PRODUCTION)/DEFAMATION (PUBLICITY AGENT FOR A BROADWAY SHOW BREACHED THE COVENENT OF GOOD FAITH AND FAIR DEALING BY SENDING EMAILS TO AN INVESTOR DESIGNED TO SINK THE PRODUCTION)/TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH CONTRACT (PUBLICITY AGENT FOR A BROADWAY SHOW BREACHED THE COVENENT OF GOOD FAITH AND FAIR DEALING BY SENDING EMAILS TO AN INVESTOR DESIGNED TO SINK THE PRODUCTION)