California Appellate Tracker

Lee v. Silveira

January 20, 2017

Discussions and votes of board members at HOA board meetings are protected free speech under California’s Anti-SLAPP statute, so a suit based on that conduct should have been stricken.

This decision reverses an order denying an Anti-SLAPP motion to strike a declaratory relief complaint brought by three members of a townhouse owners association against the remaining six members of the board. Meetings of the owners association were official proceedings and a public forum. The conduct of the six board member defendants which gave rise to the suit were their votes and deliberations regarding the association’s contracts with its management firm and a contractor. Those were about issues of public importance and so the defendants’ votes and deliberations were protected activity. Plaintiffs could not show a probability of prevailing since the defendants had acted in accordance with the owners’ association’s governing documents.

California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 1 (Benke, J.); December 5, 2016; 6 Cal. App. 5th 527

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Lee v. Silveira

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