In AB Group v. Wertin (1997) 59 Cal. App. 4th 1022, three individuals guaranteed the financial performance of three members of a partnership with which they were closely affiliated. ( Id. at p. 1025.) When the partnership became unable to pay its debts, one of the guarantors urged the other two guarantors to refuse to pay the debt, thereby forcing the lender to renegotiate the debt. (Ibid.) Instead, the other guarantors made payments on the debt. (Ibid.) The first guarantor sued the remaining guarantors for tortious interference, alleging that they had paid the partnership debt only to obtain discounts from the lender on other debts wholly unrelated to the partnership. ( AB Group v. Wertin, supra, 59 Cal.App.4th at p. 1026.) The court in AB Group held that the opportunity to obtain discounts on debt by defaulting on valid contractual obligations was not a protected legal interest for the purpose of tortious interference claims, reasoning that "the bystander who interrupts a robbery in progress may have interfered with the robber's prospective economic advantage, but that advantage is hardly one which the law recognizes as protectable." ( Id. at p. 1034.)