Court Opinion

ID: 9614162
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:23:00.85152+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:00:45.828641
License: Public Domain

NOONAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
The legal question to be decided is whether Tucker presented sufficient evidence to create a triable issue of material fact as to whether Death Row and Kenner had sued her with malice when they began and continued a suit against her charging her with racketeering involving extortion, mail and wire fraud; intentional interference with contract; and abuse of process, and whether there was sufficient evidence of malice to go to a jury as to whether Interscope, Ortner, and Paul, Hastings had acted with malice when they began and continued a suit against Tucker in which *1040she was charged with conspiracy, disrupting a contract, depriving Interscope of property and extortion. The standard of review is that all inferences are to be drawn in favor of Tucker, the nonmoving party. It is evident, I believe, that Tucker submitted sufficient evidence to defeat the summary judgments in favor of Death Row Records, Interscope, Kenner, Ortner and Paul, Hastings. A statement of the facts, followed by a statement of the law will show the basis for this contention.
FACTS
The Cast of Principal Characters. The plaintiff, C. DeLores Tucker (Tucker), was a person of prominence in the African American community, in the Democratic Party, and in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In the 1970’s, she was Secretary of State of the Commonwealth — the first woman and the first African American to serve in this office. She served as Chair of the Democratic National Committee Black Caucus. She was the first African American president of the National Federation of Democratic Women. She crossed the path of the defendants by her concern over the popularity and promotion of gangsta rap and the impact of gangsta rap upon the behavior of black youths and upon the reputation of the black community. In 1995, she was 68 years-old.
Dionne Warwick (Warwick) had an established reputation in rhythm and blues, soul, and soft contemporary music. Warwick’s public service included raising money for AIDS research, serving as the American Ambassador for Health in the 1980’s, and acting as global ambassador for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in 2002. Her music reached a wide public and struck a note very different from that of gangsta rap, as in her signature song “Walk On By”:
If you see me walking down the street
And I start to cry each time we meet
Walk on by, walk on by
Make believe that you don’t see the tears
Just let me grieve in private ‘cause each time I see
you
I break down and cry
Death Row Records (Death Row), founded in 1991, is the producer of gangsta rap and other music. Its revenues are estimated to have been $900,000 in 1993 and to have been $33,000,000 in 2002. It is currently in bankruptcy. Its cofounder and CEO in the period 1993-1998, when the events relative to this litigation occurred, was Suge Knight. Death Row signed some of hip-hop’s biggest stars, including Tupac Sha-kur, and dominated the rap industry in the mid-1990’s. The company came to represent the West Coast rap movement in the emerging East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry that eventually led to the murders of Tupac Shakur in 1996 and Tupac’s East Coast rival rapper, Biggie Smalls in 1997. At the time relevant to this litigation, Death Row had a distribution agreement with Interscope Records.
Marion “Suge” Knight, Jr. (Knight) was 28 years-old in 1993. He had been charged with and pled no contest to auto theft, possessing a concealed weapon, attempted murder, assault, and battery with a deadly weapon. He was convicted of assault in 1992 and placed on probation. In 1996, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for parole violation. Knight’s criminal career after dates relevant to the litigation is omitted.
Interscope Records was a California general partnership consisting in 1993-1995 of Interscope Records, Inc. and Atlantic Ventures, an affiliate of Time Warner.
*1041Time Warner is a media and communications company whose principal place of business is New York. Its total assets in 1995 were $3.72 billion. At the start of the underlying suits, Time Warner owned a 50 percent share of Interscope Records through its affiliate Atlantic Ventures.
David Elliot Kenner (Kenner) was in 1995 a 53 year-old lawyer, a graduate of the law school of the University of Southern California, engaged in the solo practice of law in Encino, California.
Charles B. Ortner (Ortner) was 50 years old in 1995, had graduated from Brooklyn Law School, and was an attorney with Paul, Hastings.
Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker (Paul, Hastings) is a large law firm headquartered in Los Angeles and has 17 other offices around the world employing 1200 attorneys.
Events. In 1993, when Tucker was the Chair of the National Political Congress of Black Women (the NPC), she listened to the plea of Warwick and Melba Moore, another well-known African American performer, to do something about “what’s going on in Hollywood about our young people calling us whores and bitches and disrespecting and denigrating African American women.” Tucker followed up by checking on whether this stuff was sold to children. If it was, she was going to “put my marching shoes back on that I marched with Dr. Martin Luther King hand in hand in Selma.” The stuff was sold to children. Tucker began marching.
As president of the NPC, Tucker enlisted Warwick, Moore, Voncier Alexander, and Terri Rossi to form an Entertainment Commission, whose Mission Statement ran as follows:
The goals of the National Political Congress of Black Women, Inc. (NPCBW) Entertainment Commission (NPCBW
Entertainment Commission) are threefold:
• Seek to eliminate internal blockage in the industry that currently and most obviously prevents African Americans from the achievement of equal opportunities as artists and those positions of decision making.
• Mobilize African Americans in the industry to join the struggle to resolve critical issues affecting African American communities, particularly in the areas of education and health, where so many serve as role models and spokespersons.
• Offer strategies and solutions of reshaping and maintaining positive images to preserve the dignity and heritage of our youth ... instead of continuously exposing our youth to negative media that distort their images of male/female relationships, undermines the stability of our families, communities and nation by encouraging violence, abuse and sexism as acceptable behaviors, and perpetuates the cycle of low self-esteem of African American youth.
Tucker’s march had just started. She demonstrated outside a Tower Records store to protest its sale of albums of gangsta rap to minors. She gained support for her cause from a broad spectrum of national leaders, including William Bennett, Joe Lieberman, Tipper Gore, Bob Dole, and Sam Nunn. She testified before the Federal Communications Commission and before committees of Congress on the harm done by gangsta rap. She attended a Time Warner stockholders’ meeting where she offered the corporation’s executives $100 if they would read gangsta rap aloud to the meeting. In short, Tucker using the skills and smarts of a woman knowledgeable about political endeavors and media responses, took advantage of the democratic processes available to *1042aroused citizens, and made herself a terrific nuisance to a principal producer of gangsta rap, Death Row.
On July 7, 1995, the NPC convened its biennial convention in Seattle. Suge Knight and Kenner as Death Row’s lawyer met with Tucker and others. They discussed the formation of a distribution company owned by blacks that could distribute Death Row Records if Suge Knight eliminated the gangsta rap.
On August 7, 1995, Tucker and others drafted a letter for Knight’s signature, memorializing the July 7 meeting. In the letter, Knight stated that Death Row “will cease and desist from the production and distribution of misogynist, obscene and pornographic music,” a preliminary condition for Knight’s authorization of NPC “to negotiate an acceptable contract relationship with Time Warner Inc. regarding the production and distribution of our music products.” This letter was unsigned and delivered to Knight. .The next day, August 8, Warwick arranged a meeting attended by about ten persons, some of them NPC members, not including Tucker, and four persons from Time Warner. Michael Fuchs, an executive of Warner Music, wanted to know if Knight had a contract with Interscope to distribute his records. Fuchs had flown from New York to meet Knight and “the purpose of the meeting was for [Fuchs] to sort of grill Suge Knight on his involvement or his relationship with Interscope.” Knight had been invited, but wasn’t there. He telephoned repeatedly from 11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. to say he was on the way. Knight spent the day with his lawyer, Kenner, and James Iovine, then the President of Interscope Records.
The following day, August 9, Kenner drafted a letter signed by Kenner and Knight and addressed to Dionne Warwick. The letter rejected the draft letter sent to Knight, affirmed his position to stand by his music and musicians, and stated that Tucker had misunderstood him or was misrepresenting what he had said. The letter also rejected what it described as “Mr. Fuchs’ offer, as conveyed to Mr. Knight, of an $80,000,000 advance and to provide him with two studios if he would agree to sign directly with Time Warner.”
Kenner then conferred with Ortner, counsel for Interscope. On August 15, 1995, Ortner filed a complaint on behalf of Interscope against Tucker in the Central District of California. The complaint alleged that beginning in mid-1995, for her own “personal and financial gain,” Tucker “together with others whose identities are [] unknown,” engaged in a conspiracy to destroy Interscope by “committing extortion, threats, and other unlawful acts.” In-terscope’s partner, the Time Warner affiliate, was also named but characterized as “a nominal defendant.”
The first claim of the complaint was that as a result of Tucker’s actions, “the contractual relationship between Interscope and Death Row Records has been disrupted.” The second claim sought a preliminary and permanent injunction against these acts. The third claim was for such injunctions against Tucker attempting to induce Time Warner and its affiliate Atlantic Ventures to breach their fiduciary duty to Interscope. The fourth claim sought similar injunctions against Tucker engaging in unfair business practices and unfair competition, by reason of which “Inter-scope has incurred irreparable harm and has been deprived of its property rights.” Compensatory, exemplary, and punitive damages were sought on each claim, along with reasonable attorneys fees. The complaint carried the name of three lawyers and the firm name of Paul, Hastings. It was signed in Ortner’s name.
*1043Two days later, on August 17, 1995, Kenner on behalf of Death Row also filed in the Central District a complaint against Tucker; the NPC; Time Warner; the Warner Music Group; Michael Fuchs; and Gerald Levin for “multiple violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. § 1961-68, as well as various other violations of federal and state laws.” The allegations against Tucker were stated to be against her as an individual and as “a representative or officer of [the NPC].” Fuchs was identified as chairman of Warner Music and Levin as chairman of Time Warner. The defendants were alleged to be in a conspiracy “to enrich the Defendants themselves.” The defendants were said to have engaged in their unlawful scheme “[f]or the past 13 months,” that is, since July, 1994. Their acts began with “a smear campaign.” “This campaign, primarily directed toward Defendant TIME WARNER, was and is an apparent attempt to induce action through political pressure.” Tucker “did not disclose her ulterior motive to replace and supplement Interscope Records as the distributer of the recorded output of Death Row Records. This commercial goal was hidden and obscured by Defendant TUCKER.” Among the acts charged against Tucker personally was her picketing of a Time Warner stockholders’ meeting, her denouncing Time Warner “for their support of music containing ‘explicit’ lyrics, and its alleged denigration of African-American women.” Tucker’s recruitment of.William Bennett and Bob Dole to her cause was also alleged against her.
The first cause of action set out was racketeering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(b) and (c). Tucker, the NPC “and others” unknown were said to have formed an enterprise to establish “a record distribution company controlled by Defendant TUCKER.” The enterprise was attempting to secure its objective by a “pattern of racketeering activity.” The predicate criminal acts included extortion, that is, an attempt to obtain property from Death Row Records “by a wrongful use of force or fear against Knight” resulting in “actual,” although unknown, damages to Death Row. Mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1841 was another part of the pattern, a crime carried out by the draft letter proposed for Knight’s signature on August 7, 1995. Wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 was also part of the pattern, the fraud consisting in unspecified uses of “the wires, radio, or television communications” with the result of actual, but unknown, damage to Death Row. The defendants were further charged with criminal interference with interstate commerce in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951-2, a crime alleged to have been committed simply “by transporting persons and things in interstate commerce” in furtherance of their scheme. A final element of the unlawful pattern was the conspiracy of the defendants to achieve their unlawful end.
The second cause of action alleged conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d) and sought treble damages for unspecified harm. The third cause of action alleged a “conspiracy to interfere with advantageous business relationships” broadly said to be “in violation of federal and state law.” The fourth cause of action was for intentional interference with contract and prospective business advantage. The fifth cause of action made “extortion” its gravamen. The sixth cause of action was “unfair business practices”; the seventh was “abuse of process,” by the defendants “threatening to fabricate and pursue a course of conduct designed to cause criminal and civil liability to Knight,” a crime amounting to “wrongful use of the criminal and civil justice system.”
Death Row sought an injunction against all the defendants, treble damages for the *1044first and for the second causes of action, and compensatory, exemplary, and punitive damages for all causes of action.
In October 1995, two months after the litigation began, an ad appeared in The Source, a hip-hop magazine, listing twelve black freedom fighters such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela. To this list a thirteenth name had been added, that of Tucker. A red line was drawn through this name. At the bottom of the ad were two quotes. The first was attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr.: “When we let freedom ring, ... we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children ... will be able to join hands and sing ... ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.’ ” A second quote followed under this first one. Underneath this paragraph and parallel to it were these words: “Whether it’s freedom for our people or freedom for our people to say what’s on their minds the fight lives on_” Following this quotation, its author was identified as Suge Knight, CEO of Death Row Records.
On October 4, 1995, Kenner wrote counsel for Tucker, stating “Death Row, because of the actions of the parties, including your clients, has been damaged and Death Row Records has every right to proceed to have their case heard without delay.” Death Row and Interscope made demand for the production of documents including “without limitation, any communication, notes of conversations, correspondence, contracts, proposals, drafts and/or memoranda ... that reflect, refer, or relate to Interscope, Death Row and/or rap music” and “[a]ll of your personal and business telephone records, logs, messages and related documents, for the period of January 1, 1995 to the present.” In their capacity as plaintiffs, they also took Tucker’s testimony for four days of depositions. A month later, they took another four days, so that the total testimony came to 1,700 pages contained in eight volumes. In 1996, approximately thirteen months later, they took another three days of depositions from Tucker, adding three more volumes to the total.
In February 1996, Death Row produced and Interscope distributed an album sung by Tupac Shakur. One song, “How Do U Want It?” asked:
Now tell me is it cool to fuck?
Did you think I came to talk?
The rapper went on in the course of his song to say:
Delores Tucker, yous a muthafueka,
Instead of trying to help a nigga you
Destroy a brotha, worst than the others,
Bill Clinton, Mr. Bob Dole, you too old
To understand the way the game’s told.
You lame soul, I got to hit you with the high facts.
When some release makin’ millions....
A second song on the album, “Wonda Why They Call U Bitch,” concluded:
Dear Ms. Delores Tucker, you keep stressin’ me,
Fuckin’ with a motherfuckin’ mind.
I figured you wanted to know, you know,
AVhy we call them ho’s bitches.
Maybe this might help you understand.
It ain’t personal.
It’s strictly business, baby, strictly business.
So if u wonda why we call u bitch
U wonda why we call u bitch
If u wonda why we call u bitch,
U wonda why we call u bitch.
Trial was finally set, for October 27, 1998. On June 1, 1998, Death Row filed a notice of motion to dismiss its entire action. The reasons given were that Death Row and Interscope had severed their relationship and Death Row no longer need*1045ed injunctive relief to protect it and that investigation had shown that Tucker and the NPC lacked money to satisfy the damages to which Death Row was entitled. Interscope also moved for dismissal of its action. On June 18, 1998, the motions were granted.
PROCEEDINGS
Judge Paez’s opinion accurately states the beginning and course of the two cases now consolidated for decision. Tucker died at the age of 78 in 2005; her husband, William Tucker, is now her personal representative. Death Row is in bankruptcy, and its bankruptcy estate is being managed by a court-appointed trustee.
The district court’s ruling in the Kenner case was as follows:
While the court notes that Kenner lacked probable cause to pursue a claim of abuse of process in the underlying litigation, the evidence Plaintiffs offer in addition to this finding is insufficient to show that Kenner acted with malice. Plaintiffs have offered no evidence to support their allegation that Kenner knew no threats were levied against his client. Moreover, Plaintiffs’ assertion is inconsistent with Kenner’s deposition testimony as well as Mrs. Tucker’s admission that she did contact the Justice Department and the FBI regarding Death Row Records. Lastly, Plaintiffs’ allegations about Kenner’s conduct during the course of litigation amount to nothing more than mere speculation and fail to demonstrate actual hostility or ill will. A reasonable jury could not return a verdict in Plaintiffs’ favor on this evidence. As such, summary judgment is warranted as to this issue.
The district court added:
Defendant Kenner also seeks clarification as to the court’s ruling regarding probable cause and favorable termination. The court advises Defendant that genuine issues of fact existed as to both issues which precluded a finding as a matter of law in his favor.
In the Interscope case, the court found that genuine issues of material fact remained as to Interscope Records’ probable cause for inducement to breach contract and inducement to breach fiduciary duty as well as Death Row’s probable cause to file claims for RICO violations, extortion, and abuse of process.
ANALYSIS
In these diversity cases, it is uncontested that California law should govern. We consider them separately except to note that both suits brought by the defendants against Tucker terminated in her favor. A necessary element of a case for malicious prosecution is judgment against the plaintiffs in the suits that they maliciously launched. Under California law a voluntary dismissal accepted by the court constitutes such a judgment even though the phrase “with prejudice” is not added to the dismissal. Fuentes v. Berry, 38 Cal.App.4th 1800, 1808, 45 Cal.Rptr.2d 848 (1995).
Tucker v. Kenner. On the evidence presented by Tucker, a jury could conclude that Kenner lacked probable cause and filed and pursued Death Row’s action against Tucker and the NPC with malice.
First, as to the objective lack of probable cause: The district court has already ruled that there are triable issues of fact as to probable cause. Death Row and Kenner have not appealed that ruling. It may, therefore, seem to be a work of supererogation to review the counts of the Death Row complaint in terms of their lack of any foundation in fact. That, however, is not the case. Lack of probable cause can be an element in the proof of *1046malice. Even more significantly, knowledge of the lack of probable cause is itself proof from which a jury may infer malice. Swat-Fame, Inc. v. Goldstein, 101 Cal.App.4th 613, 634, 124 Cal.Rptr.2d 556 (2002). Reasons exist, therefore, to review the lack of probable cause for many of the claims of the quondam plaintiffs and the likelihood that the claims were knowingly brought without cause.
First, after three years of investigation, discovery, and deposition-taking, Kenner voluntarily withdrew Death Row’s action against Tucker, including the claims that she had committed a variety of federal and state crimes. A jury could reasonably infer that the stated reason that Tucker and the NPC were judgment-proof was window-dressing meant to disguise the absence of any fact supporting the outrageous claims asserted. Second, a jury could make an inference from the difference between the Interscope and Death Row complaints. Although both companies and their lawyers were in communication in preparing their respective suits, and although both corporations had the same information about Tucker and the same reasons to hate her, Interscope did not charge Tucker with racketeering. If there were any evidence of racketeering in possession of Death Row, a jury could infer that it would have been shared with Interscope. The absence of racketeering charges in Interscope’s complaint would permit a rational trier of fact to conclude that, more probably than not, Death Row and Kenner knew no facts to support their racketeering claims. Third, a jury could also infer from the extraordinary vagueness of several of Death Row’s criminal charges that Kenner was merely using boiler plate without possession of any facts on which to act. A trier of fact could consider, for example, the failure to identify any actual harm caused by the conduct complained of; the utterly unspecified reference to “uses” of “the wires”; the strange charge of criminal interference in interstate commerce by the transport of “persons and things.” Fourth, a jury could also infer that the racketeering charges against the NPC were without any foundation and without any purpose except to make out Tucker as a scheming and faithless fiduciary who would manipulate an educational group for her own private profit.
Fifth, the district court has ruled as a matter of law that Kenner lacked probable cause to bring the claim for abuse of process. This ruling has not been appealed and is the law of the case. A jury could infer that if Kenner lacked probable cause so did Death Row. Further, a jury could infer that Kenner knew there was no probable cause for this claim. As a lawyer, Kenner must have known that an abuse of process “is an act done in the name of the court and under its authority for the purpose of perpetrating an injustice,” and thus, the essence of an abuse of process claim “lies in the misuse of the power of the court.” Meadows v. Bakersfield Sav. & Loan Ass’n, 250 Cal.App.2d 749, 753, 59 Cal.Rptr. 34 (1967). Tucker had brought no suit against his client. A jury could well infer that the knowing assertion of this claim manifested malice.
Similarly, an action for intentional interference with contract requires an actual breach or disruption of the contractual relationship. Quelimane Co. v. Stewart Title Guar. Co., 19 Cal.4th 26, 77 Cal.Rptr.2d 709, 960 P.2d 513, 530 (1998). The absence of any evidence of an actual breach could allow a jury to infer that Kenner knowingly brought and continued Death Row’s actions without probable cause.
Finally, that the August 7, 1995 letter authorized the NPC, and not Tucker, to “negotiate an acceptable contract relation*1047ship” on behalf of Death Row suggests that Tucker could not have harbored a ulterior motive of personal enrichment as alleged in Death Row’s complaint. A jury could infer from this letter that Kenner had no probable cause and therefore harbored malice in attributing hidden motives to Tucker where no such evidence existed.
As to evidence from which a rational trier of fact could infer malice, Swat-Fame, 101 Cal.App.4th at 634, 124 Cal.Rptr.2d 556, shows that the knowing bringing of a baseless claim is sufficient for a jury to conclude that a case was brought maliciously. Second, the charges against Tucker evince hatred. A 68 year-old civic leader is charged with a spate of offenses that would be appropriate to an indictment of a mafioso. She is an extortionist and a racketeer. She has organized a racketeering enterprise to enrich herself. Malice gleams from Death Row’s complaint.
Third, the allegations in the complaint specifically set out the criminal conduct charged to Tucker as beginning in 1994. In their brief on appeal the defendants acknowledge that Tucker had a perfect right under the First Amendment to agitate against gangsta rap and to ask others to join in her cause. That is precisely what she was doing in 1994. Not even a shred of evidence exists to show that this veteran of the civil rights movement was acting for her personal profit on any occasion in 1994. What Tucker was doing, both in 1994 and in 1995, a jury could find, was what Bob Dole, Tipper Gore and Joe Lieberman were doing — telling Time Warner and its affiliate, “Get this stuff off the air. You should be deeply ashamed. You are maligning women. You are promoting lawlessness. You are denigrating an entire ethnic community. For heaven’s sake and for the sake of your own reputation, get out of it.” Warwick, a deeply respected singer, had taken the lead. Yet Tucker alone was charged with racketeering and a pattern of racketeering reaching back to the period of her acknowledged First Amendment activity. Her profit-seeking motive is alleged to have been “hidden.” A jury could conclude that a hidden motive was an imagined motive, a motive maliciously conjured up to bolster Death Row’s complaint. Only malicious minds, a jury might decide, could so construe her tough-minded and democratic strategy.
Fourth, former education Secretary William Bennett is named as a recruit of Tucker. His recruitment is an asserted part of the pattern of racketeering. The dogged determination to do in Tucker is manifestly malicious when her wooing of a senior American political leader is asserted to constitute criminal behavior.
Fifth, the complaint alleged that Levin, the CEO of Time Warner, and Fuchs, the CEO of Warner Music, were engaged in the racketeering conspiracy to enrich Tucker. The sheer implausibility of this claim, unsupported by any specific allegations, could lead a jury to infer malice. Hate-filled malignancy, a jury could infer, had led to the fantastic supposition that a multi-billion dollar corporation sought to enrich Tucker by cooperating in her racketeering.
Sixth, a jury could infer malice from the way Death Row and its counsel conducted the case — first asserting a need for a prompt trial but at no point moving for a restraining order or preliminary injunction; besieging Tucker with an oppressive demand for discovery; harassing Tucker with days of deposition-taking, while taking very little deposition testimony from Warwick, who participated in the August meeting; and taking no depositions from Fuchs and Levin, alleged to be Tucker’s partners in crime.
*1048Seventh, three publications outside of the Death Row complaint shed light on Death Row’s motives. The first is the ad in The Source. Tucker believed that the ad called for her death. She was deposed as to the pain it caused her and the precautions she felt obliged to take to prevent being killed. No direct evidence was submitted establishing that Death Row paid for the ad. A jury could take into account two facts: (1) The concluding quotation was ascribed to Knight in his corporate capacity. This quotation is paired with the quotation of Martin Luther King, Jr.; (2) Knight had reason to hate Tucker. This full page ad improbably put Knight on par with King, pointedly identified Knight as Death Row’s CEO, and marked Tucker, at least symbolically, for destruction. The inference could rationally be drawn that the ad was inserted in The Source by Death Row and was significant evidence of its malice as it continued its suit against Tucker. The two songs made by Tupac under the Death Row record label during the litigation demonstrate the strongest antipathy to Tucker, who is assailed in vile language. A jury could well conclude, If this evidence does not exhibit malice, what would?
Kenner is not personally responsible for the ad or the lyrics. He is responsible for setting out the malicious imaginings of a client with such hate, or so a jury could conclude. Kenner could be held responsible for the irresponsible assortment of criminal charges in the complaint against Tucker that he drafted and filed. Despite his extensive experience with the criminal law, Knight does not appear to have had the education necessary to conceive of the RICO charges and to express Tucker’s alleged crimes in words fitted to the statutory provisions invoked. A jury could well conclude that the special malice of the racketeering allegations owed their origin and presentation to the knowledge and skills of Kenner. An attorney cannot escape liability by saying, “I was only a hired gun. My client and its CEO may have been malicious, but I was not.” Kenner could be found to have begun and continued the suit sharing the malice of his client and to have expressed malice in the drafting of the complaint.
It is argued that the ad in The Source and Tupac’s lyrics are not evidence of malice at the start of the suit because they appeared after the suit was started. For two reasons, this argument is unconvincing. First, a jury could well infer that the hatred of Tucker displayed in the ad and in the lyrics was not a sudden development arising out of the suit, but the overt demonstration of what had smouldered and been fueled by anger at Tucker’s campaign against gangsta rap. Second, it is good California law that malice in continuing a lawsuit is as actionable as malice in originating it. Zamos v. Stroud, 32 Cal.4th 958, 12 Cal.Rptr.3d 54, 87 P.3d 802, 810 (2004). The ad and the lyrics demonstrate malice in the prosecution of the suit.
It has been suggested that the ad can be read as the personal act of Suge Knight, not of Death Row. Again that argument cannot be sustained. First, Knight’s corporate title was used to identify him. Second, Knight — as far as this record shows— was Death Row. When he appears in the record, he is bargaining, complaining, negotiating for Death Row without reference to its directors or to any corporate control. He is it, or so a jury could reasonably infer.
It has been suggested that Death Row is not responsible for Tupac’s lyrics. The suggestion is one possible reading of the evidence. But a jury could reasonably infer that the extraordinarily pointed references to Tucker did not arise out of any special animus against her on Tupac’s part *1049but were designed by Death Row and its CEO to bring their adversary into a public pillory.
Tucker v. Interscope, Death Row, Ortner, and Paul, Hastings. Tucker sued Interscope, Death Row, Ortner and Paul, Hastings on five grounds that have been winnowed in the course of its action and an appeal consists in a single claim of malicious prosecution. Again, it is desirable to examine the elements of the claim that consist in the lack of probable cause as well as the presence of malice. A jury could infer Death Row’s malice and lack of probable cause from the same evidence showing Kenner’s malice and lack of probable cause, as discussed earlier. What of the acts of Interscope taken by itself and of the lawyers representing Interscope in the litigation against Tucker?
Interscope’s complaint alleged that Tucker was a conspirator engaged in extortion and other unlawful acts for her own profit. The few facts stated in the complaint focused on hazy and inconclusive accounts of the July 1995 meeting and on accounts of the August 1995 meeting held by Warwick from which Knight, Kenner, and Tucker were all absent. A jury could infer that not only was probable cause lacking for these baseless charges, but that Interscope and its lawyers, Ortner and his firm, knew that the charges were baseless.
Second, a theory of both complaints was that Tucker was using her leverage with Time Warner, no doubt sensitive to adverse publicity, to break Interscope’s contract with Death Row. In fact, however, in September 1995, less than two months after the complaints were filed, Time Warner terminated the only investment it had in the joint venture with Interscope. Despite the absence now of any channel by which Tucker could affect Death Row’s relation to Interscope, the suit continued for three years without a foundational fact.
Third, the plaintiffs lined up against Tucker were Death Row and Interscope. Yet she was alleged to be disrupting their relation. The improbability of the two plaintiffs being set against each other by Tucker would permit a jury to infer that the suits were continued after they had lost even a smidgen of probability.
Fourth, the claim that the Interscope-Death Row relationship had been disrupted was palpably untrue. The contract between them had not been breached. Their counsel, Ortner and Kenner, worked hand and glove together, or so the jury might infer from the coordination of the complaints. The allegation that Interscope had “incurred irreparable harm” and had been “deprived of its property rights” was unsupported and inferably known by the Interscope attorneys to be untrue.
Conclusion. The evidence in this record, interpreted as it must be, in favor of the nonmoving party is sufficient to require the reversal of summary judgment for Kenner, Death Row, Interscope, Ortner, and Paul, Hastings. As a matter of law, their cases against her ended with prejudice. The law of this case is that there are triable issues as to probable cause. Tucker’s evidence affords multiple instances where a jury could infer, from what Death Row, Kenner, Interseope, and Ortner said and did, that the suits brought and maintained against Tucker were knowingly and therefore maliciously filed without probable cause and were prosecuted with malice for three years in an oppressive way, long after a scintilla of cause had been extinguished.
Two issues appear to divide the court. The first is whether malicious prosecution can be shown by malicious acts by a defendant performed after the defendant has brought the lawsuit that the plaintiff complains of. Judge Paez’s opinion seems to *1050suggest that malice in the mind of the defendant can only be shown by what is alleged in his complaint. That view of the law is mistaken. Malice may be shown by malicious acts subsequent to the complaint in the continuation of the lawsuit. See Zamos, 12 Cal.Rptr.3d 54, 87 P.3d 802; Del Rio v. Jetton, 55 Cal.App.4th 30, 36, 63 Cal.Rptr.2d 712 (1997).
In Zamos, the court listed the elements of a suit for malicious prosecution, including the requirement that the suit was “initiated with malice.” Zamos, 12 Cal.Rptr.3d 54, 87 P.3d at 807 (citations omitted) (italics in original). The court noted that the defendants in the case before it argued that continuing to prosecute a lawsuit discovered to lack probable cause did not constitute the tort of malicious prosecution. Id. The court rejected the defendants’ argument. Its holding stated: “We conclude an attorney may be held liable for continuing to prosecute a lawsuit discovered to lack probable cause.” Id. 12 Cal.Rptr.3d 54, 87 P.3d at 803. As in Swat-Fame, knowledge of the lack of probable cause (in the court’s phrase “discovery” of this lack) supplies the malice that supports the tort.
The second division is on whether knowing lack of probable cause may constitute proof of malice. Stressing the objective character of probable cause, Judge Paez’s opinion suggests that absence of probable cause is not relevant to malice. But when a suit is brought without probable cause and the allegator knows that he has no probable cause, a window is opened to the mind of the allegator. California law clearly states that although lack of probable cause alone does not support an inference of malice, “malice may still be inferred when a party knowingly brings an action without probable cause.” Swat-Fame, 101 Cal.App.4th at 634, 124 Cal.Rptr.2d 556 (citation omitted) (italics in original). Knowing that he has no basis for what he alleges, the allegator manifests malice in the hateful acts he imagines and attributes to the enemy he is pursuing.
In discussing Kenner’s malice in charging Tucker with abuse of process, Judge Paez observes: a “fact-finder could reasonably infer from Kenner’s drafting of the complaint [charging Tucker with abuse of process] that he did not believe the claim was valid when filed, or that the claim was instituted for an improper purpose.” I agree with this reasoning, concur in Judge Paez’s conclusion as to the vitality of Tucker’s claim for malicious prosecution in Kenner’s charge of abuse of process and wonder why the same rule does not apply to the other claims advanced by the defendants where inferably they know they had no probable cause. I do not understand how this court, years after the original litigation, is capable of determining the state of mind of the defendants here. That is a question of fact. As a question of fact it is for a jury to decide.
In both our cases, an experienced fighter for civil rights, acting to defend her community, was charged with extortion, with seeking to enrich herself, and exploiting her own organization for her profit. Further, in the case brought by Kenner she was accused of committing major federal crimes nonexistent in fact and so vaguely alleged as to show on the face of the complaint that the lawyer had conjured them up or simply filled in a blank form. The court is in no position to conclude that the lawyers and their clients believed that these charges were true, rather than unscrupulous inventions. Indeed almost anyone would doubt that sophisticated lawyers could have known anything except that the charges were false. In any event, it is not for us now to decide this question, but to allow a jury to determine whether the lawsuits against Tucker were brought *1051without probable cause and with knowledge of the absence of probable cause and therefore with malice. A court of the United States presented with a record as the one before us should not walk on by.