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Tom L.I am not the buyer (nor do I know who got the seller to stop the auction), but what you guys are doing - by contacting the seller after he already made an off-line deal to sell the card - is actually contractual interference. Once the prospective buyer contacted the seller, the seller agreed to stop the auction and sell the item to the individual, they had a legal, binding contract (offer, acceptance, promises constituting consideration). Regardless of what you thought of the buyer's actions, you violated tort law when you contacted the seller and purposely induced him to renege on his contract.
I doubt that the individual would try to do anything about the situation (considering the amount probably isn't worth the energy/time of a legal fight). But just so you know, the buyer could go after the seller for breach of contract, and after whoever contacted the seller for tortious interference with a contract.
As for possible damages: per the Restatement, 2nd of Torts (which a number of states have expressly adopted as state law), "such damages as would reasonably flow from a tortious contractual interference" may include the pecuniary loss of the benefits of the contract, consequential losses for which the tortious act is the legal cause, emotional distress and actual harm to reputation, if they are reasonably to be expected to result from the tortious act, and, in appropriate circumstances, punitive damages. See also Dobbs, Law of Remedies, § 6.4, p. 461.
I know this stuff happens all the time without ramication, but I can see someone going after the seller and interfering person in a situation where the item at issue was extremely rare/expensive/desirable.
Have a nice day,
Tom
10-31-2005, 12:38 PM
T206 w/ no red ink ends early on eBay. GRRR!
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