Birkner v. Lam

In a very important opinion, the Court of Appeal reversed the San Francisco Superior Court and held that: 1) serving an eviction notice (here for relative move-in) was an exercise of the First Amendment right to petition; and 2) a tenant’s suit arising from the service of that notice triggered the state anti-SLAPP statute, which requires plaintiffs suing over a defendant’s exercise of the right of petition or free speech on a public issue to prove at the beginning of the case that they have a meritorious complaint, or the complaint will be dismissed. The Court of Appeal remanded to the Superior Court to determine whether plaintiffs could prevail. Now, tenants cannot easily serve meritless lawsuits hoping to force a settlement.