TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH BUSINESS RELATIONS CAUSE OF ACTION PROPERLY SURVIVED A MOTION TO DISMISS, LAW OF THE CASE DOCTRINE APPLIES ONLY TO COURTS OF COORDINATE JURISDICTION.

The First Department determined plaintiff had stated a cause of action for tortious interference with business relations. Plaintiff, a Broadway musical producer, alleged defendant made false statements implicating plaintiff in investor fraud (committed by a nonparty). The court noted that the law of the case doctrine applies only to courts of coordinate jurisdiction, not to the appellate courts:

The tortious interference claim was properly sustained insofar as it was premised on emails sent by defendant to a key investor, but not insofar as it was premised on comments made by defendant’s attorney that were quoted in various news articles.

As to the emails, plaintiff adequately pled that defendant’s conduct was unlawful or for the sole purpose of inflicting intentional harm on plaintiff … – as we observed in a related action premised on these same emails (see Rebecca Broadway L.P. v Hotton, 143 AD3d 71, 77 [1st Dept 2016]). Specifically, plaintiff alleged that, in sending the emails, defendant misappropriated confidential information he was privy to as a result of his position as the musical’s press agent and committed the independent tort of defamation … . Sprecher v Thibodeau, 2017 NY Slip Op 02519, 1st Dept 3-30-17