John M. Lee v. Flintkote Company

SPOTTSWOOD W. ROBINSON, III, Circuit Judge.

This appeal emanates from a summary judgment rejecting a claim of intentional interference by a third party with contractual relations subsisting between franchisees of retail paneling stores and their franchisor. 1 The pivotal issue is whether the franchise contracts conferred upon the franchisees the exclusive right to sell the franchisor’s products within the territories respectively franchised. A subsidiary question is whether the agreements were ambiguous on that score and thus opened the door to introduction of extrinsic evidence purporting to…