Archive for February 2011
Anti-SLAPP Statute Can Be Used In Federal Court
There is currently no federal anti-SLAPP statute, but that does not mean the anti-SLAPP remedy is not available in federal court. In federal diversity cases brought in California, applying California law, a defendant still maintains the right to bring a motion to strike under Civil Procedure section 425.16. But overlaying this statute onto federal procedures has created some issues.
The right to amend.
In California, it is now clear that once an anti-SLAPP motion has been filed, the plaintiff cannot amend the complaint in an attempt to fix the problems that made the complaint a SLAPP. But in the recent case of Greensprings Baptist Christian Fellowhip Trust v. Cilley, the Ninth Circuit saw things differently.
That case arose from a malicious prosecution action. The defendant filed an anti-SLAPP motion which was granted by the court, but with leave to amend. The court ruled that under the very liberal amendment standards of federal court, leave was proper.
As a side note, the decision made little sense, again illustrating that many courts struggle with the hybrid nature of an anti-SLAPP motion. Even though demurrers are not permitted in federal court, that in essence was the standard applied by the District Court. When a demurrer is sustained because the complaint fails to allege essential elements, leave to amend is normally granted to afford the opportunity to allege the missing elements. In Greensprings, the court determined that plaintiff had failed to meet the second prong of the anti-SLAPP analysis – providing sufficient evidence to show a likelihood of success. But why grant leave to amend? If the issue is evidence, then no amount of amending will provide more evidence.
And that takes us to the next difference between state and federal court as regards the treatment of the anti-SLAPP process:
The right to appeal.
California’s anti-SLAPP statute provides for an immediate appeal from a denial, so the defendant did just that; appealing the court’s decision to permit amendment. But that raised another issue. Federal courts do not like interim appeals, state statute or not. The Court of Appeals held that as a matter of first impression, the order granting anti-SLAPP motion to strike complaint with leave to amend did not conclusively determine the disputed question of the anti-SLAPP statute’s applicability, and thus the order was not immediately appealable. “Accordingly, we hold that we lack jurisdiction under the collateral order doctrine to entertain an appeal from the portion of a district court’s order granting a defendant’s anti-SLAPP motion which gives a plaintiff leave to amend her complaint.”
However, the decision was a narrow one limited to the specific circumstances. The Court of Appeal confirmed that California’s right of appeal is available when immediate review is necessary to safeguard the right protected by the state’s statute. Thus, while Greensprings denied the right to appeal, it affirmed that immediate appeal is available under the proper circumstances.
Posted in anti-SLAPP motions, Cases, Recent Cases, SLAPP | Tags: Amend, Appeal, Greensprings, Ninth Circuit, SLAPP | No Comments »
“Who you calling a thief?” said the cannibal.
A story in this month’s California Lawyer magazine caught my eye as an excellent case study on a point I try to explain to clients, sometimes unsuccessfully, about defamation actions.
Travel with me back to 1847 to the ill-fated Donner Party. While crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains near present day Truckee, the wagon train could go no further and the travelers had to hunker down and try to wait out the extreme winter weather. Of the original 89 pioneers, only 45 were rescued, and it was soon learned that they had survived by eating the others.
One of the survivors was a German immigrant name Lewis Keseberg. Keseberg admitted to cannibalism, but the authorities became convinced that Keseberg had not always waited for someone to die from exposure before using them as a food source, and he was put on trial for six murders. Although he was acquitted for lack of evidence, one of the rescuers told gruesome stories about Keseberg’s cannibalistic ways, and those stories were printed in the newspaper.
Keseberg sued for defamation, which was an amazing feat in and of itself because California was not yet a state, so such a suit must have been a procedural nightmare. He sought $1,000 in damages.
In what may have been the first defamation action on state soil, Keseberg won his lawsuit, but the court awarded only $1, and ordered Keseberg to pay the court costs.
And therein lies the lesson that some potential clients refuse to accept. Winning a defamation action is more than just proving each of the elements of libel or slander. Context is everything. The damages in a defamation action arise from the loss of reputation. A person can have a reputation that is so bad, that defamatory statements simply don’t make it any worse.
In Keseberg v. Coffeemeyer, Keseberg had been falsely accused of stealing from the people he ate. He was very offended by that accusation, and headlines in the paper that read, “Where Did Keseberg Hide the Donner Treasure?” But here’s the thing, Keseberg, YOU ATE DEAD PEOPLE! You are already off most dinner invitation lists. The added claim that you took the money of the DEAD PEOPLE YOU ATE is not a big blow to your reputation.
I’m reminded of the line from Star Wars.
Princess Leia shouts at Han Solo, “Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking, nerf-herder.”
To which Han Solo responds, “Who’s scruffy-looking?”
I once received a telephone call from a business owner, who had been the subject of a news report on television. The report had to do with the fact that he was putting unauthorized charges on customers’ credit cards. The story had reported that he did this to at least 12 customers, but after checking his records, he determined that he had only done so nine times. He wanted to sue for defamation, based on the fact that he had only cheated nine customers, and not 12. I politely declined. (I changed the facts slightly to protect the privacy of the caller.)
You will not succeed in a defamation action if you are a horrible person, but just not quite as horrible as is claimed, or if out of five terrible things said about you, only one is false.
Posted in anti-SLAPP motions, Cases, Defamation, SLAPP | Tags: Defamation, Donner Party, Reputation, Slander, SLAPP | No Comments »
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