Conspiracy to injure is one of the cause of actions available under the Law of Tort. To understand this concept let us look into the scenario below:
Mr. X and Ms. Y are both operating a Chicken Rice Restaurant known as Chicken Rice X and Chicken Rice Y. They both operate their restaurant at Jalan XY whereas although both of them are competitors but their business is equally good.
Until one day, where Mr. Z is from Hainan, China. He marries a local wife and decided to open a chicken rice restaurant known Z Chicken Rice at Jalan Z (a street beside Jalan XY). Due to the authenticity and the quality of the food, Z Chicken Rice has gain popularity and it attracts a lot of Customer from Chicken Rice X and Chicken Rice Y. This cause Mr. X and Mr. Y lose a lot of profit ever since Mr. Z opens his Chicken Rice Restaurant.
In order to defeat Mr. Z, Mr. X and Mr. Y decided to fixed their chicken rice price lower than Mr. Z, and to threaten Mr. Z’s supplier (where Mr. X, Mr. Y and Mr. Z has the same supplier) that if they ever to supply their chicken to Mr. Z. Both Mr. X and Mr. Y will terminate their contract with the supplier.
Mr. X and Mr. Y both clearly has the conspiracy to injure Mr. Z whereas, they both collude to injure Mr. Z’s Business and cause Mr. Z to lost profit as a result of this collusion.
Therefore, Mr. Z may have the cause of action to sue both Mr. X and Mr. Y under Tort of Conspiracy to injure.
From the scenario above, there are 3 main elements to establish the tort of Conspiracy to Injure:
- There is an agreement between 2 two more parties;
- Where the agreement is created to injure the victim (the injured party);
- As a result of the agreement, the victim (injured party) suffered damages/loss.
Therefore, the victim (injured party) has to prove all 3 element in court in order claim for damages against the Tortfeasor.
