Hunt Petroleum Corp. v. State

I concur with the majority's opinion that the State of Alabama did not prove the "reasonable reliance" element of its fraud claim. However, I write specially to note that even if there had been evidence of reliance, there would still be many problems with the trial court's judgment against Hunt, mostly stemming from a problem that permeates this case and many other cases: a misunderstanding of the fundamental difference between claims of breach of contract and claims of fraud.

I recently discussed the difference between breach-of-contract and fraud claims in my special concurrence in Dickinson…