When I teach about torts in a business context, I often describe tortious interference, which involves breaking up a business relationship by sharing negative things about the parties in that business relationship. I then draw the connection to alienation of affection, a tort cause of action that can be used when a third party (called one of the most wonderful legal terms: a paramour) interferes in a marital relationship, alienating the affection of one spouse for another. It’s always entertaining, but I never had a good justification for talking about it in business law classes… until now. An allegation of alienation of affection (which apparently allows aggressive alliteration) was one of the thorniest underlying problems in the drawn-out battle over the Winston-Salem baseball park.
