Ivey v. 370 Embarcadero W LLC

In a very strange case resulting from redevelopment in Oakland, a nightclub owner sued the City of Oakland and the building’s owner for violating his federal civil rights. Four civil rights and one contract claim were brought against the owner. Representing the owner, we contended that the claims arose from our client’s right of petition, triggering the anti-SLAPP statute. The trial judge stated that the civil rights claims were not directed against our client, the private entity, but only against the government (Oakland). Both we and the plaintiff disagreed with the judge. On appeal, the Court of Appeal also stated that the four civil rights claims were not directed against our client and therefore, since the only claim that was directed at our client did not arise from petitioning conduct, we lost the motion, although strangely, we won 4/5ths of the battle.