Gagen, Mccoy, McMahon, Koss, Markowitz & Fanucci Inter-Office Memorandum

Balla v. Hall (2021) 59 Cal.App.5th 652. This is SLAPP case involving claims for defamation and false light invasion of privacy. The Court found that a SLAPP motion can reach separate claims within a single pled cause of action and motions in that case did not have to be denied in their entirety if the claims were actionable in part. The SLAPP motions were properly denied as to the defamation claims arising from allegedly false statements about city council members and a public projects developer which qualified as protected activity because the probability of prevailing as to defamation was shown. Not striking the false light claim was error because a quoted statement taken out of context had no clear defamatory meaning and evidence of special damages was lacking.

/pah

Related Attorney(s):
Gregory L. McCoy