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    Intentional Interference With Contract-
(Beverly v. Network Solutions)

Tort-Intentional Interference With Contract-
(Beverly v. Network Solutions)

BEVERLY v. NETWORK SOLUTIONS

Beverly asserts as his fifth cause of action that NSI intentionally interfered with his contractual relations. The complaint alleges that because NSI terminated Beverly's use of "whoswhointheworld.com", it destroyed Beverly's marketing, product development and on-going agreements. See Compl at P XXXIII.

To establish a claim for negligent or intentional interference with contract, Beverly must allege that (1) an economic relationship existed between Beverly and some third party that contained a reasonably probably future economic benefit or advantage to Beverly, (2) NSI knew of the existence of the relationship and was aware or should have been aware that if it did not act with due care its actions would interfere with this relationship and cause Beverly to lose the probably future economic benefit of the relationship, (3) NSI was negligent or intentional, and (4) such negligence or intentional conduct actually interfered with or disrupted the relationship and caused Beverly damage. See North American Chem Co v. Superior Court, 59 Cal. App. 4th 764, 786 (1997). Furthermore, to establish intentional interference, Beverly must plead that NSI's alleged interference was independently wrongful; wrong by some measure beyond the fact of the interference itself. See Della Penna v. Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc, 11 Cal. 4th 376, 902 P.2d 740, (1995).

Beverly fails to satisfy the requisite elements. Beverly has only summarily alleged that third-party economic relationships exist and that Beverly suffered damages. See Compl PP XXXIII, XXXIV. Beverly fails to allege that NSI knew or should have known about these economic relationships. In fact, it is unlikely that there are any circumstances under which NSI would know or should know about registrants' economic relationships because NSI simply issues domain names without any inquiry in to the purpose behind the issuance.

Additionally, Beverly has not sufficiently alleged that NSI acted intentionally; the bald allegations contained in the complaint are not enough. The dispute policy provided Beverly with an option to mitigate any inconvenience he may encounter. Beverly could have chosen a new domain name (free of charge) and used it concurrently with "whoswhointheworld.com" for ninety days. Because NSI expressly provided for this option and Beverly chose not to accept it, NSI's conduct could not be intentional. See id PP XXXIV, XXXV. Finally, Beverly failed to allege that NSI actually interfered with his economic relationships.

While Beverly contends that the dispute policy in and of itself was the legal cause of his loss, that argument too must fail because Beverly freely entered into the contract with NSI that expressly contained this provision. Moreover, the dispute policy and NSI's use of the dispute policy is neither illegal or independently tortious. While Beverly has attempted to allege that the dispute policy is both illegal and independently tortious, the court has already addressed and denied those arguments.

III

For the foregoing reasons, the court GRANTS NSI's motion to dismiss pursuant to FRCP 12(b)(6). Because this order dispenses with all of Beverly's claims, the court directs the clerk to close the file and terminate all pending motions.

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