Opinion ID: 2519835
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Congruence with Privilege Law

Text: It is a fundamental rule of statutory construction that statutes should be construed to avoid anomalies. ( State of South Dakota v. Brown (1978) 20 Cal.3d 765, 775, 144 Cal.Rptr. 758, 576 P.2d 473; see also People v. Ledesma (1997) 16 Cal.4th 90, 101, 65 Cal.Rptr.2d 610, 939 P.2d 1310.) In accordance with this principle, we previously have declined to construe the anti-SLAPP statute so as to produce the anomalous result that much direct petition activity ... [,] while absolutely privileged under the litigation privilege ... and under the federal and state Constitutions, would not be entitled to the procedural protections of the anti-SLAPP law, even though section 425.16 expressly states the Legislature's intent thereby 'broadly' to protect the right of petition (§ 425.16, subd. (a)). ( Briggs, supra, 19 Cal.4th at p. 1121, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d 471, 969 P.2d 564.) 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.