Opinion ID: 2600567
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Litigation Privilege and Section 425.16

Text: Mauro argues: All litigation-related speech, lawful or not, is in furtherance of petition or free speech rights. Thus, he argues, even assuming his letter was extortion, it is nonetheless protected by Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 because it falls within subdivision (e)(1) and (2). [8] In advancing this argument, he invokes the litigation privilege set forth in Civil Code section 47, subdivision (b). He argues, first, that section 425.16 protects litigation communication to the same degree that such communication is protected by the litigation privilege and then reasons from this premise that section 425.16 must also protect unlawful litigation-related communication because the litigation privilege does. [9] He claims Paul is inapplicable to this case because it did not involve litigation-related communications protected by section 425.16, subdivision (e)(1) or (2) but, rather, noncommunicative conduct protected by subdivision (e)(4). [10] We disagree. The principal purpose of [Civil Code] section [47, subdivision (b)] is to afford litigants and witnesses [citation] the utmost freedom of access to the courts without fear of being harassed subsequently by derivative tort actions. ( Silberg v. Anderson (1990) 50 Cal.3d 205, 213, 266 Cal.Rptr. 638, 786 P.2d 365.) Additionally, the privilege promotes effective judicial proceedings by encouraging `open channels of communication and the presentation of evidence' without the external threat of liability ( ibid. ), and by encouraging attorneys to zealously protect their clients' interests. ( Id. at p. 214, 266 Cal. Rptr. 638, 786 P.2d 365.) Finally, in immunizing participants from liability for torts arising from communications made during judicial proceedings, the law places upon litigants the burden of exposing during trial the bias of witnesses and the falsity of evidence, thereby enhancing the finality of judgments and avoiding an unending roundelay of litigation, an evil far worse than an occasional unfair result. ( Ibid. ) To accomplish these objectives, the privilege is an `absolute' privilege, and it bars all tort causes of action except a claim of malicious prosecution. ( Hagberg v. California Federal Bank (2004) 32 Cal.4th 350, 360, 7 Cal.Rptr.3d 803, 81 P.3d 244.) The litigation privilege has been applied in numerous cases involving fraudulent communication or perjured testimony. ( Silberg v. Anderson, supra, 50 Cal.3d at p. 218, 266 Cal.Rptr. 638, 786 P.2d 365; see, e.g., Home Ins. Co. v. Zurich Ins. Co. (2002) 96 Cal.App.4th 17, 20, 22-26, 116 Cal.Rptr.2d 583 [attorney's misrepresentation of available insurance policy limits to induce the settlement of a lawsuit]; Doctors' Co. Ins. Services v. Superior Court (1990) 225 Cal.App.3d 1284, 1300, 275 Cal.Rptr. 674 [subornation of perjury]; Carden v. Getzoff (1987) 190 Cal. App.3d 907, 915, 235 Cal.Rptr. 698 [perjury]; Steiner v. Eikerling (1986) 181 Cal. App.3d 639, 642-643, 226 Cal.Rptr. 694 [preparation of a forged will and presentation of it for probate]; O'Neil v. Cunningham (1981) 118 Cal.App.3d 466, 472-477, 173 Cal.Rptr. 422 [attorney's letter sent in the course of judicial proceedings allegedly defaming his client].) The privilege has also been held to apply to statements made prior to the filing of a lawsuit. ( Hagberg v. California Federal Bank, supra, 32 Cal.4th at p. 361, 7 Cal.Rptr.3d 803, 81 P.3d 244.) Seizing upon these principles, Mauro maintains that section 425.16 similarly protects any prelitigation-related communications even if that communication constitutes extortion. [11] Assuming without deciding that the litigation privilege may apply to such threats, we conclude that they are nonetheless not protected under the anti-SLAPP statute because the litigation privilege and the anti-SLAPP statute are substantively different statutes that serve quite different purposes, and it is not consistent with the language or the purpose of the anti-SLAPP statute to protect such threats. There is, of course, a relationship between the litigation privilege and the anti-SLAPP statute. Past decisions of this court and the Court of Appeal have looked to the litigation privilege as an aid in construing the scope of subdivision (e)(1) and (2) with respect to the first step of the two-step anti-SLAPP inquirythat is, by examining the scope of the litigation privilege to determine whether a given communication falls within the ambit of subdivisions (e)(1) and (2). For example, in Briggs v. Eden Council for Hope & Opportunity, supra, 19 Cal.4th 1106, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d 471, 969 P.2d 564, we declined to read into section 425.16, subdivision (e)(1) and (2), which protect statements made before, or in connection with, an issue pending before an official proceeding, a further requirement that the statements concern an issue of public significance. In so holding, we observed that imposing a `public issue' requirement as a condition to protecting litigation-related communications under the anti-SLAPP statute would produce an anomalous result. ( Briggs v. Eden Council for Hope & Opportunity, supra, 19 Cal.4th at p. 1121, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d 471, 969 P.2d 564.) Litigation-related communications that did not involve a public issue would not be protected under the anti-SLAPP statute but would nonetheless be privileged under the litigation privilege, and protected by state and federal constitutional guarantees of the right of petition. ( Ibid. ) Thus, in Briggs, we bolstered our interpretation of the scope of the protection afforded to litigation-related communications under the anti-SLAPP statute by looking at whether our result was consistent with the scope of the protection afforded to such communications by the litigation privilege. Nowhere in Briggs, however, did we suggest, much less hold, that the scope of those protections are identical in every respect. The litigation privilege is also relevant to the second step in the anti-SLAPP analysis in that it may present a substantive defense the plaintiff must overcome to demonstrate a probability of prevailing. (See, e.g., Kashian v. Harriman (2002) 98 Cal.App.4th 892, 926-927, 120 Cal.Rptr.2d 576 [Where plaintiff's defamation action was barred by Civil Code section 47, subdivision (b), plaintiff cannot demonstrate a probability of prevailing under the anti-SLAPP statute]; Dove Audio, Inc. v. Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman (1996) 47 Cal. App.4th 777, 783-785, 54 Cal.Rptr.2d 830 [Defendant's prelitigation communication privileged and trial court therefore did not err in granting motion to strike under the anti-SLAPP statute].) Notwithstanding this relationship between the litigation privilege and the anti-SLAPP statute, as we have observed, the two statutes are not substantively the same. In Jarrow Formulas, Inc. v. LaMarche, supra, 31 Cal.4th 728, 3 Cal. Rptr.3d 636, 74 P.3d 737, we declined to create a categorical exemption from section 425.16 for malicious prosecution actions even though such claims are exempt from the litigation privilege. We rejected the plaintiff's attempted analogy between the litigation privilege and the anti-SLAPP statute as inapt, explaining the litigation privilege is an entirely different type of statute than section 425.16. The former enshrines a substantive rule of law that grants absolute immunity from tort liability for communications made in relation to judicial proceedings [citation]; the latter is a procedural device for screening out meritless claims [citation]. ( Jarrow Formulas, Inc., at p. 737, 3 Cal.Rptr.3d 636, 74 P.3d 737.) Nor do the two statutes serve the same purposes. The litigation privilege embodied in Civil Code section 47, subdivision (b) serves broad goals of guaranteeing access to the judicial process, promoting the zealous representation by counsel of their clients, and reinforcing the traditional function of the trial as the engine for the determination of truth. Applying the litigation privilege to some forms of unlawful litigation-related activity may advance those broad goals notwithstanding the occasional unfair result in an individual case. ( Silberg v. Anderson, supra, 50 Cal.3d at p. 214, 266 Cal.Rptr. 638, 786 P.2d 365; Doctors' Co. Ins. Services v. Superior Court, supra, 225 Cal.App.3d at p. 1300, 275 Cal.Rptr. 674 [the litigation privilege applies to subornation of perjury because it is in the nature of a statutory privilege that it must deny a civil recovery for immediate wrongssometimes even serious and troubling onesin order to accomplish what the Legislature perceives as a greater good].) Section 425.16 is not concerned with securing for litigants freedom of access to the judicial process. The purpose of section 425.16 is to protect the valid exercise of constitutional rights of free speech and petition from the abuse of the judicial process (§ 425.16, subd. (a)), by allowing a defendant to bring a motion to strike any action that arises from any activity by the defendant in furtherance of those rights. (§ 425.16, subd. (b)(1).) By necessary implication, the statute does not protect activity that, because it is illegal, is not in furtherance of constitutionally protected speech or petition rights. ( Wilcox v. Superior Court, supra, 27 Cal.App.4th at p. 819, 33 Cal.Rptr.2d 446 [If the defendant's act is not constitutionally protected how can doing the act be `in furtherance' of the defendant's constitutional rights?].) Thus, the rationale for applying the litigation privilege to some forms of illegal conductlike perjurybecause the occasional bad result is justified by the larger goal of access to the judicial process is simply not transferable to the anti-SLAPP statute because the latter statute does not promote the same goals as the former. Moreover, by its very terms, section 425.16 does not apply to activity that is not in furtherance of the constitutional rights of free speech or petition and this would necessarily include illegal activity that falls outside protected speech and petition rights. (See, Wilcox, at p. 820, 33 Cal.Rptr.2d 446 [the anti-SLAPP statute would not apply to a defendant's act of burning down a developer's office as a political protest].) Conversely, Civil Code section 47 states a statutory privilege not a constitutional protection. As we recognized in Oren Royal Oaks Venture v. Greenberg, Bernhard, Weiss & Karma (1986) 42 Cal.3d 1157, 232 Cal.Rptr. 567, 728 P.2d 1202, that statutory privilege is specific and limited in nature. In Oren, we concluded that while Civil Code section 47 prohibited an action based on a party's statements made during settlement negotiations, it did not preclude the use of those statements as evidence of the party's intent to establish an abuse of process claim. ( Oren, supra, 42 Cal.3d at pp. 1167-1168, 232 Cal.Rptr. 567, 728 P.2d 1202.) We stated: `The privileges of Civil Code section 47, unlike evidentiary privileges which function by the exclusion of evidence [citation], operate as limitations upon liability.' (Italics added.) Indeed, on brief reflection, it is quite clear that section [47, subdivision (b)] has never been thought to bar the evidentiary use of every `statement or publication' made in the course of a judicial proceeding.... ( Oren, at p. 1168, 232 Cal.Rptr. 567, 728 P.2d 1202.) By parity of reasoning, Civil Code section 47 does not operate as a limitation on the scope of the anti-SLAPP statute. The fact that Civil Code section 47 may limit the liability of a party that sends to an opposing party a letter proposing settlement of proposed litigation does not mean that the settlement letter is also a protected communication for purposes of section 425.16. [12] Therefore, we reject Mauro's contention that, because some forms of illegal litigation-related activity may be privileged under the litigation privilege, that activity is necessarily protected under the anti-SLAPP statute.