Equilon Enterprises v. Consumer Cause, Inc., S094877.

• Citation: 124 Cal.Rptr.2d 507,29 Cal.4th 53,52 P.3d 685
• Decision Date: 29 August 2002
• Docket Number: No. S094877.,S094877.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court (California)
• Parties: EQUILON ENTERPRISES, LLC, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CONSUMER CAUSE, INC., Defendant and Respondent.

124 Cal.Rptr.2d 507

29 Cal.4th 53

52 P.3d 685

EQUILON ENTERPRISES, LLC, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CONSUMER CAUSE, INC., Defendant and Respondent.

No. S094877.

Supreme Court of California.

August 29, 2002.

McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen, Leslie G. Landau, San Francisco, Colleen P. Doyle, Los Angeles, Deborah A. Nolan, Matthew Moran, Robert A. Brundage, Margaret Prinzing and Alison R. Beck, San Francisco, for Plaintiff and Appellant.

Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro and Michael J. Steel, San Francisco, for California Chamber of Commerce and Chemical Industry Council of California as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Appellant. Mehrban, Ghalchi & Yeroushalmi, Yeroushalmi & Ghalchi, Kamran Ghalchi, Reuben Yeroushalmi; Law Offices of Morse Mehrban and Morse Mehrban, Los Angeles, for Defendant and Respondent.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Richard M. Frank, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Craig C. Thompson, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Theodora Berger, Assistant Attorney General, Matthew F. Lintner and Edward G. Weil, Deputy Attorneys General, for the People as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.

Law Office of James J. Moneer and James J. Moneer as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.

Levy, Ram, Olson & Rossi, Karl Olson; Karlene W. Goller, Los Angeles; Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich, Edward P. Davis, Jr., San Jose, James Chadwick; Thomas W. Newton, Sacramento; Levine Sullivan & Koch, James Grossberg; Harold Fuson; Stephen J. Burns, Sacramento; Steinhart & Falconer, Roger R. Myers and Rachel E. Boehm for California Newspaper Publishers Association, Los Angeles Times, Copley Press, Inc., McClatchy Newspapers, San Jose Mercury, Freedom Communications, Inc., The Hearst Corporation, Media News Group and The Recorder as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.

R.S. Radford and Meriem L. Hubbard, Sacramento, for Pacific Legal Foundation as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.

Mark Goldowitz, Berkely, for California Anti SLAPP Project as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.

Margaret C. Crosby for American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California, Inc., as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.

Daniel Tokaji and Peter Eliasberg, Los Angeles, for ACLU Foundation of Southern California as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.

Jordan Budd for American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of San Diego and Imperial Counties as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.

Law Office of Fredric Evenson and Fredric Evenson for Ecological Rights Foundation as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.

Law Office of Elizabeth Bader and Elizabeth E. Bader, San Francisco, for Kairos Project as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.

James R. Wheaton, Oakland, and Iryna A. Kwasny for Environmental Law Foundation as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.

WERDEGAR, J.

Must a defendant, in order to obtain a dismissal of a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP)¹ under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 (section 425.16; the anti-SLAPP statute), demonstrate that the action was brought with the intent to chill the defendant's exercise of constitutional speech or petition rights? For the following reasons, we conclude not.²

BACKGROUND

As the Court of Appeal explained, defendant Consumer Cause, Inc., served on Shell Pipe Line Corporation and Texaco, Inc., predecessors in interest to plaintiff Equilon Enterprises, LLC (Equilon), a notice of its intent to sue for alleged violations of Proposition 65. (See Health & Saf.Code, § 25249.7, subd. (d).) Consumer Cause's notice asserted that numerous Shell and Texaco gas stations in Southern California had, since 1994, been polluting groundwater by discharging benzene, lead, and toluene into the soil. Consumer Cause sent copies of its notice to the state Attorney General, the Los Angeles County District Attorney, and the Los Angeles City Attorney.

Equilon did not ask Consumer Cause to clarify its Proposition 65 notice. Instead, it filed this lawsuit for declaratory and injunctive relief, seeking a declaration that the notice failed to comply with the California Code of Regulations. Specifically, Equilon claimed the notice had not been served on the proper parties and that it failed to describe the alleged toxic discharges with sufficient particularity. Equilon also sought an injunction barring Consumer Cause from filing a Proposition 65 enforcement action.

Consumer Cause moved under the anti-SLAPP statute to strike Equilon's complaint. The trial court granted the motion and dismissed the action. The Court of Appeal affirmed. We granted Equilon's petition for review.

DISCUSSION

Section 425.16 provides, inter alia, that "A cause of action against a person arising from any act of that person in furtherance of the person's right of petition or free speech under the United States or California Constitution in connection with a public issue shall be subject to a special motion to strike, unless the court determines that the plaintiff has established that there is a probability that the plaintiff will prevail on the claim." (Id., subd. (b)(1).) "As used in this section, `act in furtherance of a person's right of petition or free speech under the United States or California Constitution in connection with a public issue' includes: (1) any written or oral statement or writing made before a legislative, executive, or judicial proceeding, or any other official proceeding authorized by law; (2) any written or oral statement or writing made in connection with an issue under consideration or review by a legislative, executive, or judicial body, or any other official proceeding authorized by law...." (Id., subd. (e).)

Courts of Appeal reviewing the application of section 425.16 have divided over the question whether a defendant who moves under the statute to strike a cause of action must, in order to prevail, demonstrate that the cause of action was brought with the intent of chilling the defendant's exercise of constitutional speech or petition rights. (Compare, e.g., Damon v. Ocean Hills Journalism Club (2000) 85 Cal.App.4th 468, 480, 102 Cal.Rptr.2d 205[no] with Foothills Townhome Assn. v. Christiansen (1998) 65 Cal.App.4th 688, 696, 76 Cal.Rptr.2d 516[yes].) As will appear, the defendant has no such burden.

A. Statute's Plain Language

Section 425.16 nowhere states that, in order to prevail on an anti-SLAPP motion, a defendant must demonstrate that the plaintiff brought the cause of action complained of with the intent of chilling the defendant's exercise of speech or petition rights. There simply is "nothing in the statute requiring the court to engage in an inquiry as to the plaintiffs subjective motivations before it may determine [whether] the anti-SLAPP statute is applicable." (Damon v. Ocean Hills Journalism Club, supra, 85 Cal.App.4th at p. 480, 102 Cal. Rptr.2d 205.) Section 425.16, rather, unambiguously makes subject to a special motion to strike any "cause of action against a person arising from any act of that person in furtherance of the person's right of petition or free speech under the United States or California Constitution in connection with a public issue" as to which the plaintiff has not "established that there is a probability that [he or she] will prevail on the claim." (§ 425.16, subd. (b)(1); see Church of Scientology v. Wollersheim (1996) 42 Cal.App.4th 628, 648, 49 Cal.Rptr.2d 620 (Church of Scientology) [anti-SLAPP statute "clear and unambiguous" in applying to all claims "arising from" protected activity].)

Nor is there anything in section 425.16's operative sections implying or even suggesting an intent-to-chill proof requirement. "The legislative concern," rather, "is that the cause of action `aris[e] from' an act in furtherance of the constitutional right to petition or free speech." (Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. v. Paladino (2001) 89 Cal.App.4th 294, 307, 106 Cal. Rptr.2d 906.)

When on previous occasions we have construed the anti-SLAPP statute, we have done so strictly by its terms (Ketchum v. Moses (2001) 24 Cal.4th 1122, 1131, 104 Cal.Rptr.2d 377, 17 P.3d 735 [calculation of anti-SLAPP attorney fees]; see also Briggs v. Eden Council for Hope & Opportunity (1999) 19 Cal.4th 1106, 1113-1117, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d 471, 969 P.2d 564 (Briggs) [construction of § 425.16, subd. (e)]), and no reason appears why we should proceed otherwise in this case. Since section 425.16 neither states nor implies an intent-to-chill proof requirement, for us judicially to impose one, as Equilon urges, would violate the foremost rule of statutory construction. When interpreting statutes, "we follow the Legislature's intent, as exhibited by the plain meaning of the actual words of the law.... `This court has no power to rewrite the statute so as to make it conform to a presumed intention which is not expressed.'" (California Teachers Assn. v. Governing Bd. of Rialto Unified School Dist. (1997) 14 Cal.4th 627, 632-633, 59 Cal.Rptr.2d 671, 927 P.2d 1175.)

B. Legislative Intent

Citing the Legislature's finding, set out in the statute's preamble, that "there has been a disturbing increase in lawsuits brought primarily to chill the valid exercise of the constitutional rights of freedom of speech and petition for the redress of grievances" and its declaration "that it is in the public interest to encourage continued participation in matters of public significance" (§ 425.16, subd. (a)), Equilon argues that the anti-SLAPP statute was intended by the Legislature to combat only actions brought with an intent to chill speech. For the following reasons we conclude that, to the contrary, judicial imposition on section 425.16 of an intent-to-chill proof requirement would contravene the legislative intent expressly stated in section 425.16, as well as that implied by the statute's legislative history....