Cite as: 529 U. S. 494 (2000)
Stevens, J., dissenting
there was no misconduct on the part of [the defendants]"); Lesperance v. North American Aviation, Inc., 217 Cal. App. 2d 336, 346, 31 Cal. Rptr. 873, 878 (1963) ("[E]mployer . . . had the right (so far as appears) to terminate [plaintiff's] services without committing a civil wrong"); Chapman v. Pollock, 148 F. Supp. 769, 772 (WD Mo. 1957) ("The fatal defect in plaintiff's action for conspiracy is that the act committed by defendants . . . was lawful in its nature, . . . and violated no right of plaintiff"); Olmsted, Inc. v. Maryland Casualty Co., 218 Iowa 997, 1003, 253 N. W. 804, 807 (1934) ("A conspiracy is not established by the record. There is no direct evidence that such a conspiracy was formed. A conspiracy cannot be inferred from the record, because nothing was done by the alleged conspirators which was unlawful"); Royster v. Baker, 365 S. W. 2d 496, 500 (Mo. 1963) ("[T]he petition does no more than allege that the defendants agreed, or if the term is preferred, conspired, to accomplish lawful acts in a lawful manner").
Three more cases refused to impose liability because condition (b) was missing; that is, because the plaintiff did not actually suffer any harm. See Earp v. Detroit, 16 Mich. App. 271, 280-282, 167 N. W. 2d 841, 847-848 (1969) (Plaintiff waived any cause of action for conspiracy to invade his privacy by disclosing private information); J. & C. Ornamental Iron Co. v. Watkins, 114 Ga. App. 688, 691-692, 152 S. E. 2d 613, 615 (1966) ("Plaintiff does not allege that it . . . was injured in any way. . . . [T]he petition contains no allegations of fact showing that plaintiff was injured in any way . . . . Thus the petition fails to state a cause of action upon any theory"); Adler v. Fenton, 24 How. 407, 411-413 (1861). The remaining three cases found that the plaintiff did state a cause of action and therefore the court did not refuse to impose liability on that ground. See Cohen v. Bowdoin, 288 A. 2d 106, 110 (Me. 1972) ("We decide that the complaint states a claim upon which relief can be granted"); Middlesex Concrete Products & Excavating Corp. v. Carteret Indus.
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