9
“. . . . Plaintiff contends that he is entitled to treble damages because Laramar
endeavored to recover possession of the rental unit in violation of Chapter 37.9 of the
Rent Ordinance. [Citation.] . . . [¶] The eleventh cause of action clearly arises from
protected petitioning conduct.”
Laramar’s selective reading of Moriarty’s complaint is inappropriate, which is bad
enough. Worse, the conclusion it draws from the eleventh cause of action is wrong, as
shown by numerous cases, including some by us.
The issue presented by the eleventh cause of action is essentially whether an
action for violation of rent ordinances is within the anti-SLAPP statute, an issue that most
frequently presents itself in cases involving a claimed violation of the Ellis Act—cases
held not to be within the anti-SLAPP law.
We examined the pertinent decisions on this point in Delois v. Barrett Block
Partners (2009) 177 Cal.App.4th 940 (Delois), as follows:
“[In] Marlin v. Aimco Venezia, LLC (2007) 154 Cal.App.4th 154, . . . after the
landlords had served notice under the Ellis Act (Gov. Code, § 7060 et seq.) that they
intended to withdraw certain rental units from the market, the tenants of some of those
units brought a declaratory relief action to clarify their rights under that statute. The
landlords filed an anti-SLAPP motion, contending that the tenants’ complaint arose from
the landlords’ action in filing and serving the Ellis Act notices, and from other litigation
involving the removal of the rental property from the market. The trial court granted the
SLAPP motion, thereby striking the tenants’ cause of action and dismissed their
declaratory relief action.
“The Court of Appeal disagreed with the trial court that the SLAPP motion was
appropriate and reversed its order. After quoting the key language from section 425.16,
subdivision (a), the court wrote: ‘Even if we assume filing and serving the Ellis Act
notice and the notice to vacate constituted protected petitioning or free speech activity
“the mere fact that an action was filed after protected activity took place does not mean
the action arose from that activity for the purposes of the anti-SLAPP statute.” Rather,
the critical question in a SLAPP motion “is whether the cause of action is based on the