LEGAL MEMOS

Gumarang v. Braemer on Raymond LLC (2025) 110 Cal.App.5th 370. This is a SLAPP case. A tenant filed a SLAPP motion regarding a cross-complaint filed by the management of a commercial property. The trial court granted the SLAPP motion as to three causes of action of the cross-complaint, but denied it for another four and denied the motion for attorneys’ fees vendor CCP section 425.16(c).

The Court of Appeal affirmed. The challenged cross-complaint claims that were upheld did not arise out of the lessee’s protected activity in that it was not the lessee’s filing of the underlying lawsuit that formed the basis of management’s cross-claims for contractual indemnity, breach of contract and declaratory relief. Rather, it was lessee’s alleged breach of the lease’s indemnity provisions by refusing to defend and indemnify management that gave rise to those claims. The trial court did not abuse its discretion denying the lessee’s request for attorneys’ fees because the tenant was not a prevailing cross-defendant under CCP section 425.16. The trial court found that the lessee did not obtain any practical benefit from dismissing the cross-complaint’s first three causes of action because the factual landscape of the parties litigation did not change.

/lsa