Opinion ID: 3051078
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Kenner and the Claim for Abuse of Process

Text: With respect to the abuse of process claim in Death Row v. Tucker, the Tuckers have raised a triable issue of fact under the above standard. A reasonable fact-finder could infer from Kenner’s drafting of the complaint that Kenner knew the abuse of process claim lacked merit.20 In drafting the com20 The fact that Kenner included multiple causes of action in the complaint, some of which were pled properly on the known facts at the time of filing, does not affect our determination that Kenner’s abuse of process claim raises a triable issue of fact regarding malice. Under California law, “it is not necessary that the whole proceeding be utterly groundless, for, if groundless charges are maliciously and without probable cause, coupled 1816 ESTATE OF TUCKER v. INTERSCOPE RECORDS plaint, Kenner alleged that Mrs. Tucker’s “wrongful use of the criminal and civil justice system” was an abuse of process under California state law. The only fact in the complaint to support that allegation was that “[Suge] Knight was specifically threatened that as a result of [Tucker’s] power and influence that [he] would spend the rest of his life in jail.” Even if Kenner sincerely relied on his client’s representations that such a threat was made by Tucker, Kenner’s use of that allegation to state an abuse of process claim provides a triable issue as to whether Kenner did so with malice. [12] This is because under well-established California law, the tort of abuse of process “requires misuse of a judicial process.” Stolz v. Wong Commc’ns Ltd. P’ship, 25 Cal. App. 4th 1811, 1822 (Ct. App. 1994). It is a process that is “pursuant to authority of [a] court.” Meadows v. Bakersfield Sav. & Loan Ass’n., 59 Cal. Rptr. 34, 37 (Ct. App. 1967); see id. (“[T]he essence of the tort ‘abuse of process’ lies in the misuse of the power of the court; it is an act done in the name of the court and under its authority for the purpose of perpetrating an injustice.”); see also 5 Witkin, Summary of Cal. Law (10th ed. 2005) Torts, § 517, pp.767-68. To succeed in an action for abuse of process, a litigant must establish that the defendant (1) contemplated an ulterior motive in using the judicial process, and (2) committed “a willful act in the use of th[at] process not proper in the regular conduct of the proceedings.” Oren Royal Oaks Venture v. Greenberg, Bernhard, Weiss & Karma, Inc., 728 P.2d 1202, 1209 (Cal. 1986). Misuse of an administrative proceeding—even one that is quasiwith others which are well founded, they are not on that account less injurious, and, therefore, [even one charge can] constitute a valid cause of action.” Crowley v. Katleman, 881 P.2d 1083, 1088 (Cal. 1994) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Bertero v. Nat’l Gen. Corp., 529 P.2d 608 (Cal. 1974) (approving a jury instruction allowing the jury to find for the plaintiff in a malicious prosecution action even if only one of the three theories of liability pleaded in the underlying action lacked probable cause). ESTATE OF TUCKER v. INTERSCOPE RECORDS 1817 judicial—does not support a claim for abuse of process. Stolz, 25 Cal. App. 4th at 1823-25 (noting that there is “no authority” that extends the tort to administrative proceedings). Nor is there any authority—Kenner’s citation to Standing Committee on Discipline v. Ross not withstanding—that threats made outside of the judicial process can form the basis for an abuse of process claim. See Ross, 735 F.2d 1168, 1170 (9th Cir. 1984) (threatening criminal charges to obtain an advantage in an ongoing civil action subjected lawyer to disciplinary proceedings). [13] Here, in drafting the abuse of process claim, Kenner relied on vague language about “wrongful use of the criminal and civil justice system” despite clearly established law that requires misuse of a court process.21 Moreover, he supported the claim with the mere factual assertion that Tucker would use her “influence” to ensure that Knight went to jail. These circumstances raise a genuine triable issue of fact as to Kenner’s “subjective mental state . . . in instituting the [claim].” Downey Venture, 78 Cal. Rptr. 2d at 152. A fact-finder could reasonably infer from Kenner’s drafting of the complaint that he did not believe the claim was valid when filed, or that the claim was instituted for an improper purpose.22 21 For this reason, although Kenner invites us to affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment on the basis that he had probable cause to include the abuse of process claim in Death Row v. Tucker, he has utterly failed, on this record, to demonstrate that he is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. We therefore have no basis on which to affirm on this alternative ground. 22 We also note that the only additional evidence that Kenner obtained after he filed the complaint, according to his own deposition, was that, “[Tucker] apparently did call the Justice Department, I think Janet Reno directly, and I think she called Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and I think she called the FBI . . . there [may have been] an investigation that followed.” Even assuming arguendo that such complaints or investigations occurred, the tort of abuse of process lies in the misuse of the power of the court. Meadows, 59 Cal. Rptr. at 37. Under these circumstances, a reasonable fact-finder could infer, as recognized in Zamos, that Kenner’s continued prosecution of the abuse of process claim, after learning that it had no merit, was evidence of a malicious intent. See also Sycamore Ridge Apt’s v. Naumann, 69 Cal. Rptr. 3d 561, 579-81 (Ct. App. 2007) (applying Zamos). 1818 ESTATE OF TUCKER v. INTERSCOPE RECORDS 2. Ortner, Thomas, Paul Hastings and the Remaining Claims against Kenner [14] With respect to Ortner, Thomas, Paul Hastings, and the remaining claims against Kenner, the Tuckers fail to pinpoint how any of the evidence in the record suggests that any of the attorney-Defendants filed Death Row v. Tucker and Interscope v. Tucker for a purpose other than honoring their clients’ wishes. The Tuckers have not shown, with respect to these remaining claims, that the attorneys affirmatively knew that the factual bases for the underlying suits to be false at the time the suits were filed, cf. Morrison, 126 Cal. Rptr. 2d at 752. Nor have the Tuckers shown that any attorney-Defendant continued to prosecute any of the remaining claims after learning that they were not supported by probable cause. Zamos, 87 P.3d at 810. Given this lack of evidence, the district court correctly concluded that no reasonable trier of fact could find that the attorney-Defendants, with the exception of Kenner’s claim for abuse of process, acted with malice when they filed the underlying litigation on behalf of Death Row and Interscope.23 V. Loss of Consortium Mr. Tucker’s claim for loss of consortium was derivative of his wife’s cause of action for malicious prosecution. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of all the Kenner and Interscope Defendants, in part, on the basis that Mr. Tucker’s claim was tied to the malicious prosecution claims, which the court determined did not survive summary judgment. Were this the only basis for the court’s disposition 23 The dissent provides no legal authority from a California court for its assertion that a decision to file numerous claims is probative of malice. Dissent at 1835-36. Nor does the “two against one” posture of the underlying litigation, see id. at 1838, establish any triable issue regarding malice. ESTATE OF TUCKER v. INTERSCOPE RECORDS 1819 of this claim, reversal might well be warranted because we have concluded that the malicious prosecution claim must proceed as to Kenner. See Snyder v. Michael’s Stores, Inc., 945 P.2d 781, 785 (Cal. 1997) (“One spouse cannot have a loss of consortium claim without a prior disabling injury to the other spouse.”). However, the district court also reached the merits of Mr. Tucker’s claim and concluded on the limited evidentiary record that, “the harm . . . is more akin to a loss of society and companionship than the type of longstanding and debilitating impairment to the relationship necessary to support a loss of consortium.” We can affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment on any basis supported by the record, and we agree. To support a loss of consortium claim, marital spouses must allege that their partner suffered an injury that is “sufficiently serious and disabling to raise the inference that the conjugal relationship is more than superficially or temporarily impaired.” Molien v. Kaiser Found. Hosp., 616 P.2d 813, 823 (Cal. 1980); Anderson v. Northrop Corp., 250 Cal. Rptr. 189, 195 (Ct. App. 1988) (same). The injury may be physical or psychological, but psychological injury must “rise[ ] to the level of a ‘neurosis, psychosis, chronic depression, or phobia’ [to be] sufficient to substantially disturb the marital relationship.” Anderson, 250 Cal. Rptr. at 195, quoting Molien, 616 P.2d at 813. [15] We agree with the district court that Mr. Tucker’s testimony does not raise a triable issue as to psychological injury sufficiently serious or disabling as to raise an inference that his relationship with his wife was more than superficially impaired. Therefore, the district court properly granted Defendants’ motion for summary judgement as to Mr. Tucker’s loss of consortium claims. 1820 ESTATE OF TUCKER v. INTERSCOPE RECORDS VI.