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C.A. Orders Publication of Anti-SLAPP Opinion
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Court of Appeal for this district yesterday decided to order publication of its May 19 opinion declaring that a judge properly denied that an anti-SLAPP motion brought by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles and others in response to an action brought by seven adults who allege that they were molested by a priest while they were children.
Div. Five, in an opinion by Presiding Justice Laurence D. Rubin, rejected the contention that the failure to speak—not to warn of the propensities of a then-priest—amounted to protected speech, satisfying the first prong of the anti-SLAPP statute, Code of Civil Procedure §425.16.
“We conclude the failure to speak alleged as a basis for liability here is not conduct in furtherance of the right of free speech.”
In a published opinion filed April 29, 2021, Rubin reached the same conclusion, but tweaked the opinion after the California Supreme Court granted review and remanded the case for further consideration in light of its tweaked July 29, 2021 decision in a case.
The case, reported upon in detail on May 23, is Ratcliff v. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles, B302558. It will be published in full in tomorrow’s Slip Opinion Supplement.
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