Zuercher

I. INTRODUCTION

Respondent Lawrence Zuercher filed an action against appellants Hormoz Faryab and Mehrdad Farzinpour and other defendants, seeking a declaration that his default judgment against Iyad Naffa was a joint and several liability of a partnership whose partners included Naffa, Faryab, and Farzinpour. Zuercher also alleged that defendants were liable for financial elder abuse. Faryab and Farzinpour responded to the second amended complaint by bringing a special motion to strike under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16,1 the anti-SLAPP2 statute, which provides that a cause of action arising from constitutionally protected

1 All further statutory references are to the Code of Civil Procedure unless otherwise indicated. 2 “SLAPP is an acronym for ‘strategic lawsuit against public participation.’ ” (Jarrow Formulas, Inc. v. LaMarche (2003) 31 Cal.4th 728, 732, fn. 1.) speech or petitioning activity is subject to a special motion to strike unless the plaintiff establishes a probability of prevailing on the claim. (§ 425.16, subd. (b)(1).) The trial court denied the motion, finding that the action did not arise from protected activity. On appeal, defendants contend that…