Opinion ID: 2519876
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Intent to Chill

Text: City states that it filed this action in an attempt to obtain a more favorable forum than federal court in which to litigate the constitutionality of its mobilehome park rent stabilization ordinance. City's initial goal was to use the state action to persuade the federal court to abstain in favor of the state proceeding. City in fact filed a motion in federal district court asking that the federal action be dismissed on a number of grounds, including abstention in favor of the state action. A secondary, alternative goal, City claims, was to try to obtain a quick favorable decision upholding the Ordinance which then could be used for res judicata purposes in the federal court. Owners argue that City's real intention in filing this action went beyond the desire for a favorable forum. Owners speculate City actually hoped to discourage [Owners] from continuing to litigate by burdening them with defending a new, costly, and duplicative lawsuit in a second jurisdiction. Whether City's subjective motivations for filing this action were, in reality, primarily as City describes them, or primarily in accordance with Owners' speculation, cannot be ascertained with certainty from the record. As Owners ultimately concede, City's subjective intent ... will probably never be known. Fortunately, the question of subjective intent is not relevant. As discussed in detail in Equilon, supra, 29 Cal.4th 53, 124 Cal.Rptr.2d 507, 52 P.3d 685, the anti-SLAPP statute, construed in accordance with its plain language, incorporates no intent-to-chill pleading or proof requirement. ( Id. at pp. 58-66, 124 Cal.Rptr.2d 507, 52 P.3d 685.) Consequently, a defendant who meets its burden under the statute of demonstrating that a targeted cause of action is one arising from protected activity (§ 425.16, subd. (b)(1)) faces no additional requirement of proving the plaintiffs subjective intent. ( Equilon, supra, at pp. 66-67, 124 Cal.Rptr.2d 507, 52 P.3d 685.)