On December 5, 2024, the First Department issued a decision in Valkyrie AI LLC v. PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, 2024 NY Slip Op. 06141, holding that an existing contract, without more, was an insufficient basis for alleging a prospective business relationship, explaining:
The court properly dismissed the tortious interference with prospective business relations claim against all defendants. To state a claim for tortious interference with prospective business relations, a plaintiff must allege (1) business relations with a third party, (2) the defendant’s interference with those business relations, (3) the defendant acted for the sole purpose of harming plaintiff or used wrongful means, and (4) injury to the business relationship. For this cause of action it must be affirmatively alleged that the defendant’s conduct was motivated solely by malice or to inflict injury by unlawful means going beyond mere self-interest or other economic considerations.
While Reclassify bases this claim on the LCD Contract it had with Morgan Stanley, this was not a prospective business relationship — it was a current one.
The mere fact that Reclassify had a current contractual relationship with Morgan Stanley was not sufficient to establish the prospect of a future contract with Morgan Stanley.
(Internal citations omitted).