This course covers torts that businesses suffer and in which other commercial entities are the defendants. Tort law’s primary focus is on protecting against personal injury and property damage. But businesses can’t suffer personal injury and frequently the harm that they do suffer is pure economic loss. This occurs due to fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and interference with contract. At the same time, tort law has been reluctant to interfere when the parties are in a contractual relationship and the risk of loss has been (or could have been) addressed by agreement of the parties in their contract. Thus, when the only harm caused is economic loss, such as lost profits, identity theft, a loss of an inheritance, the benefit of the bargain in a contract, an opportunity to start a new business, or a product that does not perform as it should have, tort law has been very restrictive about providing relief, leaving most of such harm to contract law or uncompensated. This course will cover the areas in which tort law does provide protection and for pure economic loss and the areas in which it has deferred to contract.
