Park

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

I. Facts1

Yun Sook Park (plaintiff) has enjoyed a long career on radio, television, and newspaper programming serving Los Angeles’s Korean community. He is also a golf instructor. In 2015, plaintiff became the president of the Los Angeles Korean Festival Foundation (the Foundation). The Foundation is “well-known . . . in the Korean community” and “puts on a widely-attended and popular annual festival” that brings in $1 million in sponsorships each year. Also in 2015, Jimmy Lee was a chairman of the Foundation. Lee “harbored dislike” of plaintiff because, years prior, plaintiff had accused Lee of misappropriating funds from the Foundation. In the spring of 2017, Lee hatched a plan to impugn plaintiff by “deliberate[ly] fabricat[ing]” a story that plaintiff had embezzled funds from the Foundation. Lee filed a false police report accusing plaintiff of embezzlement and then “sought out” Simon Yang, who also “strongly disliked” plaintiff and ran a

Pursuant to the standard for reviewing a judgment based upon a statement of decision following a bench trial, we state the facts in the light most favorable to the prevailing party. (Thompson v.…