ch of contract context (understood to provide a shield against liability) from the principles applicable to tort cases (where there is no such shield). As authority for our holding in Pelton, we cited Murtha v Yonkers Child Care Assn. (45 NY2d 913 [1978]). We now find, however, that our reliance on Murtha was misplaced, and we therefore decline to follow the pleading rule articulated in Pelton.
Murtha is a breach of contract case in which the Court of Appeals stated that a corporate officer will not be held liable for inducing the breach of a contract between the corporation and a third party if he committed no "independent torts or predatory acts" (45 NY2d at 915). The Court had no occasion to hold, or even suggest that a director would not be held liable for a tort committed by the corporation if he had not committed a tort independent of that tort. In Brasseur v Speranza (21 AD3d 297 [2005]), which the Pelton Court cited as an example of a Murtha pleading failure, we dismissed a breach of fiduciary duty claim against individual board members because "there is no allegation that they breached a duty other than, and independent of, those contractually imposed upon the board" (id. at 298 [emphasis added]). Moreover, we find that the Pelton pleading rule conflicts with Court of Appeals' warning that discrimination, among other abusive practices, is not protected by the business judgment rule (see Levandusky, 75 NY2d at 536; Pullman, 100 NY2d at 157). It also is inconsistent with the Court of Appeals' recent instruction that "we must construe Administrative Code § 8-107 (7), like other provisions of the City's Human Rights Law, broadly in favor of discrimination plaintiffs, to the extent that such a [*5]construction is reasonably possible" (Albunio v City of New York, 16