Averill

Petitioner, a homeowner, is a critic of a plan by a charitable organization to convert a house in her neighborhood into a shelter for battered women. Because of comments she made to her employer regarding that organization, it sued her for slander. A motion to strike pursuant to the anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) suit statute was denied. She filed a petition for writ of mandate which we grant.

Statement of Facts

In October, 1993, Jeannie Averill (Averill) learned Eli Home, Inc. (Eli) planned to purchase a home in her neighborhood for use as a shelter for battered women. The plan for the shelter became the subject of a number of Anaheim City Council and Planning Commission hearings. Averill was present at some of these meetings. She, along with a number of other neighbors, opposed the plan. Following one planning commission meeting, Eli sent a letter to some of the homeowners opposed to the project, threatening legal action if they continued to make allegedly slanderous statements. In August 1994, Averill presented a letter to the city council signed by residents who lived near Eli’s former shelter, located in Orange, describing noise and…