Rinaldo's Construction Corp. v. Michigan Bell Telephone Co.

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• refusing to permit a construction company’s claim in tort to proceed against a telephone company, where their relationship was contractually based
• applying separate-and-distinct analysis to case in which a party to the contract asserted a tort claim
• plaintiff could not allege tort for business losses incurred due to telephone company’s negligence in installing and maintaining phone lines
• “[T]he threshold inquiry is whether the plaintiff alleges violation of a legal duty separate and distinct from the contractual obligation.”
• “[T]he threshold inquiry is whether the plaintiff alleges a violation of a legal duty separate and distinct from the contractual obligation.”
• “[A]s Prosser puts it ... ‘if a relation exists which would give rise to a legal duty without enforcing the contract promise itself, the tort action will lie, otherwise not.’”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).