Nesler v. Fisher & Co.

Ferd Nesler (plaintiff) bought and began to renovate an office building for purposes of renting it out. Nesler financed the purchase and renovation costs. Numerous Iowa county-government agencies committed to moving into the building when it was completed. Many of those agencies rented office space from Fisher & Company (Fisher) (defendant) at the time. Louis Pfohl was the president of Fisher. Nesler alleged that, upon learning of the agencies’ plan to move out of his building, Pfohl engaged in a series of activities designed to derail Nesler’s plans for the new building. Among other things, Nesler claimed that Pfohl sued the county board of supervisors to prevent it from approving the agencies’ move to the new building; helped one of his non-governmental tenants sue Nesler on the ground that the new building did not provide sufficient handicap access, including providing legal representation for the tenant for free; and pressured the city building inspector to find violations in the new building. All this activity generated media coverage about Nesler and eventually led to the bank not providing the additional funding that Nesler needed to pay off the seller of the building and complete the renovations. As a result, Nesler could not perform under his contract with the seller or his lease agreements with the prospective tenants. Nesler sued Fisher for intentional interference with his existing contracts. The jury returned a verdict in Nesler’s favor. The trial court entered a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, in Fisher’s favor. In doing so, the trial court noted that the seller of the building and Nesler’s prospective tenants were still willing to perform under the contracts with Nesler. Nesler appealed.