Source: http://californiaslapplaw.com/library-of-cases/intent-to-chill-speech-anti-slapp-motion/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 20:59:53+00:00

Document:
Equilon Enterprises, LLC v. Consumer Cause, Inc.
As the Court of Appeal explained, defendant Consumer Cause, Inc., served on Shell Pipe Line Corporation and Texaco, Inc., predecessors in interest to plaintiff Equilon Enterprises, LLC (Equilon), a notice of its intent to sue for alleged violations of Proposition 65. (See Health & Saf. Code, § 25249.7, subd. (d).) Consumer Cause’s notice asserted that numerous Shell and Texaco gas stations in Southern California had, since 1994, been polluting groundwater by discharging benzene, lead, and toluene into the soil. Consumer Cause sent copies of its notice to the state Attorney General, the Los Angeles County District Attorney, and the Los Angeles City Attorney.
Equilon did not ask Consumer Cause to clarify its Proposition 65 notice. Instead, it filed this lawsuit for declaratory and injunctive relief, seeking a declaration that the notice failed to comply with the California Code of Regulations. Specifically, Equilon claimed the notice had not been served on the proper parties and that it failed to describe the alleged toxic discharges with sufficient particularity. Equilon also sought an injunction barring Consumer Cause from filing a Proposition 65 enforcement action.
Consumer Cause moved under the anti-SLAPP statute to strike Equilon’s complaint. The trial court granted the motion and dismissed the action. The Court of Appeal affirmed. We granted Equilon’s petition for review.
Courts of Appeal reviewing the application of section 425.16 have divided over the question whether a defendant who moves under the statute to strike a cause of action must, in order to prevail, demonstrate that the cause of action was brought with the intent of chilling the defendant’s exercise of constitutional speech or petition rights. (Compare, e.g., Damon v. Ocean Hills Journalism Club(2000) 85 Cal.App.4th 468, 480, 102 Cal. Rptr. 2d 205 [no] with Foothills Townhome Assn. v. Christiansen (1998) 65 Cal.App.4th 688, 696, 76 Cal. Rptr. 2d 516 [yes].) As will appear, the defendant has no such burden.
Citing the Legislature’s finding, set out in the statute’s preamble, that “there has been a disturbing increase in lawsuits brought primarily to chill the valid exercise of the constitutional rights of freedom of speech and petition for the redress of grievances” and its declaration “that it is in the public interest to encourage continued participation in matters of public significance” (§ 425.16, subd. (a)), Equilon argues that the anti-SLAPP statute was intended by the Legislature to combat only actions brought with an intent to chill speech. For the following reasons we conclude that, to the contrary, judicial imposition on section 425.16 of an intent-to-chill proof requirement would contravene the legislative intent expressly stated in section 425.16, as well as that implied by the statute’s legislative history.
The anti-SLAPP statute has since its enactment contained a preamble setting forth the Legislature’s desire “to encourage continued participation in matters of public significance” (§ 425.16, subd. (a), as added by Stats. 1992, ch. 726, § 2, p. 3523). In 1997, the Legislature amended section 425.16, effecting no substantive changes to the anti-SLAPP scheme, but adding to the preamble a requirement that the statute, to achieve its stated ends, “shall be construed broadly.” (§ 425.16, subd. (a), as amended by Stats. 1997, ch. 271, 1.) [FN 3] Interpreting section 425.16, in accordance with its plain language, as encompassing unsubstantiated causes of action arising from protected speech or petitioning, without regard to the subjective intent of the plaintiff, both maximizes the statute’s tendency “to encourage continued participation in matters of public significance” and conforms to the Legislature’s express requirement of broad construction.
On the other hand, judicial imposition of an intent-to-chill proof requirement would undermine the Legislature’s expressed aim that public participation “not be chilled” (§ 425.16, subd. (a)) by SLAPP’s. Obviously, not only when a plaintiff intends to chill speech may the filing of a lawsuit have that result. “Intimidation will naturally exist anytime a community member is sued by an organization for millions of dollars even if it is probable that the suit will be dismissed” (Comment, Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation: An Analysis of the Solutions (1991) 27 Cal. Western L.Rev. 399, 405, fn. omitted). “Considering the purpose of the [anti-SLAPP] provision, expressly stated, the nature or form of the action is not what is critical but rather that it is against a person who has exercised certain rights” (Church of Scientology, supra, 42 Cal.App.4th at p. 652). “The Legislature recognized that ‘all kinds of claims could achieve the objective of a SLAPP suit — to interfere with and burden the defendant’s exercise of his or her rights.’” (Beilenson v. Superior Court (1996) 44 Cal.App.4th 944, 949, 52 Cal. Rptr. 2d 357.) For us to bar use of the anti-SLAPP device against nonmeritorious speech-burdening claims whenever a defendant cannot prove the plaintiff’s improper intent would fly in the face of that legislative recognition.
We previously have stated that the legislative intent underlying section 425.16 must be “‘gleaned from the statute as a whole’” (Briggs, supra, 19 Cal.4th at p. 1118). “The fact the Legislature expressed a concern in the statute’s preamble with lawsuits brought ‘primarily’ to chill First Amendment rights does not mean that a court may add this concept as a separate requirement in the operative sections of the statute.” (Damon v. Ocean Hills Journalism Club, supra, 85 Cal.App.4th at p. 480; see alsoBriggs, supra, at p. 1118.) Any such requirement would be “too restrictive” (Church of Scientology, supra, 42 Cal.App.4th at p. 648) in light of the Legislature’s unqualified desire to “encourage continued participation in matters of public significance” (§ 425.16, subd. (a)).
Where, as here, legislative intent is expressed in unambiguous terms, we must treat the statutory language as conclusive; “no resort to extrinsic aids is necessary or proper.” (People v. Otto (1992) 2 Cal.4th 1088, 1108, 831 P.2d 1178, 9 Cal. Rptr. 2d 596.) Nevertheless, we may observe that available legislative history buttresses our conclusion.
Nor do the anti-SLAPP statute’s fee-shifting provisions inappropriately punish plaintiffs. Plaintiffs as well as defendants may recover fees: defendants, as discussed, only when the plaintiff burdens free speech with an unsubstantiated claim (Rosenthal, supra, 14 Cal.4th at p. 412); plaintiffs whenever a defendant’s motion to strike is “frivolous or is solely intended to cause unnecessary delay” (§ 425.16, subd. (c)). Equilon fails to persuade that such a fee- shifting provision overburdens those who exercise the First Amendment right of petition by filing lawsuits. “The right to petition is not absolute, providing little or no protection for baseless litigation” (Church of Scientology, supra, 42 Cal.App.4th at p. 648, fn. 4).
Equilon also cites California Teachers Assn. v. State of California (1999) 20 Cal.4th 327, 975 P.2d 622, 84 Cal. Rptr. 2d 425 (California Teachers) for the proposition that “a party cannot be held liable or punished for genuine petitioning,” but for at least two reasons California Teachers is not apposite. First, in California Teachers we addressed the “unique and virtually unprecedented” requirement (id. at p. 333) that a teacher who does not prevail on a reasonable and good faith challenge to a disciplinary suspension or dismissal pay to the state one-half the cost of the administrative law judge. Contrary to Equilon’s implication, California Teachers nowhere discusses or calls into question fee-shifting provisions such as the one found in the anti-SLAPP statute.
Second, whereas the proponent of a speech-burdening claim may avoid an anti-SLAPP dismissal by submitting an affidavit substantiating the claim’s legal sufficiency (§ 425.16, subd. (b)(2); Rosenthal, supra, 14 Cal.4th at p. 412), the disciplinary scheme at issue in California Teachers incorporated no such safety valve to diminish constitutional concerns. Section 425.16 “is one of several California statutes providing a procedure for exposing and dismissing certain causes of action lacking merit.” (Lafayette Morehouse, Inc. v. Chronicle Publishing Co. (1995) 37 Cal.App.4th 855, 866, 44 Cal. Rptr. 2d 46.) “In varying language, all of these statutes literally require the trial court, at a preliminary stage of the litigation, to determine by examining affidavits the ‘substantial probability’ of plaintiff’s prevailing on a claim, whether evidence ‘substantiates’ a standard of proof the plaintiff must meet, or whether plaintiff has ‘established . . . a reasonable probability’ of recovery” (ibid.). Equilon has failed to identify any support for the proposition that the constitutionality of such provisions depends upon their requiring proof of subjective intent.
Similarly here. Were we to impose an intent-to-chill proof requirement, petitioning that is absolutely privileged under the litigation privilege would be deprived of anti-SLAPP protection whenever a moving defendant could not prove that the plaintiff harbored an intent to chill that activity. Our construction avoids that anomalous result.
Considerations of public policy buttress the foregoing legal arguments against judicially imposing an intent-to-chill proof requirement on California’s anti-SLAPP statute. A requirement that courts confronted with anti-SLAPP motions inquire into the plaintiff’s subjective intent would commit scarce judicial resources to an inquiry inimical to the legislative purpose that unjustified SLAPP’s be terminated at an early stage. “Imposing a requirement of establishing bad faith or ulterior motive adds a needless burden to SLAPP targets seeking relief, and destroys the relatively value-free nature of existing anti-SLAPP structures under which actions become suspect because of the circumstances of their arising and the relief sought, without need to litigate motive.” (Braun, Increasing SLAPP Protection: Unburdening the Right of Petition in California (1999) 32 U.C. Davis L.Rev. 965, 969, fn. 9.) By requiring that a moving defendant demonstrate that the targeted cause of action is one arising from protected speech or petitioning (§ 425.16, subd. (b)), our anti-SLAPP statute utilizes a reasonable, objective test that lends itself to adjudication on pretrial motion. Such early resolution is consistent with the statutory design “to prevent SLAPPs by ending them early and without great cost to the SLAPP target” (Tate, California’s Anti-SLAPP Legislation: A Summary of and Commentary on Its Operation and Scope (2000) 33 Loyola L.A. L.Rev. 801), a purpose reflected in the statute’s short time frame for anti-SLAPP filings and hearings (§ 425.16, subd. (f)) and provision for a stay of discovery (id., subd. (g)).
We are well advised not to upset the Legislature’s carefully crafted scheme for disposing of SLAPP’s quickly and at minimal expense to taxpayers and litigants. Our Legislature apparently adjudged the anti-SLAPP statute’s two-pronged test (“arising from” and minimal merit) and the statute’s other express limitations to be adequate, finding it unnecessary to add an intent-to-chill or similar proof requirement such as Equilon proposes. We discern no grounds for second-guessing the Legislature’s considered policy judgment.
[FN 4] Equilon purports to have sought declaratory relief solely in order to “get clarification of what it had to do” to avoid Proposition 65 liability after receiving Consumer Cause’s notices. Equilon neglects to mention, when arguing in this vein, that it also sought injunctive relief that expressly would restrict Consumer Cause’s exercise of petition rights. We need not in this case, therefore, decide whether or when a pure declaratory relief action seeking mere clarification of past speech or petitioning, but alleging no “liability or defense” (§ 425.16, subd. (b)(2)) or remedy “against a person” (id., subd. (b)(1)) that significantly would burden future exercise of such rights, might evade anti-SLAPP scrutiny. Such questions in any event lie beyond the scope of our review.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Court of Appeal is affirmed.

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