Is a servant liable to a tort action if he causes a breach of contract between his employer and a third party?
Ontario, Canada
The following excerpt is from Apotex Inc. v. Plantex USA, Inc., 2005 CanLII 15481 (ON SC):
The rule in Said v. Butt, [1920] 3 K.B. 497 provides that a servant who acting “bona fide within the scope of his authority” (at 506) causes a breach of a contract between his employer and a third party is not liable to an action in tort. The reason for the rule is that a servant is not a stranger to the actions of the employer, but rather the servant’s acts are the acts of his employer, presumably acting in the best interests of his employer.
However the court stated in Said v. Butt (at 505) that this protection from liability does not apply where “the person who procured the breach of contract was in fact a stranger, that is a third person, who stood wholly outside the area of the bargain made between the two contracting parties. … [H]e is in the position of a stranger, he will be prima facie liable, even though he may act honestly, or without malice, or in the best interests of himself.”
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