Wins

May 25, 2007
Court of Appeal reverses denial of anti-SLAPP motion on mixed cause of action

Gallanis-Politis v. Medina, et al. (2007) 152 Cal.App.4th 600 (California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 8) [published]. Jens Koepke and Marty Stein convinced the Court of Appeal to reverse the denial of an anti-SLAPP motion with directions to grant the motion and award attorneys’ fees and costs to GMSR’s client. Plaintiff, a Los Angeles County employee, had alleged that two other employees had retaliated against her by conducting a pretextual investigation into her entitlement to a bilingual bonus. The Court of Appeal held that the defendant employees’ investigation was covered by the anti-SLAPP statute because it was related to a discovery request propounded by the plaintiff, and that plaintiff would not probably prevail because the defendants’ activities were covered by the litigation privilege. In reaching its decision, the court ruled that the fact the plaintiff had alleged other unprotected actions by defendants did not remove the case from anti-SLAPP coverage, because those other activities were incidental to and not the main focus of plaintiff’s claim.