Delois

I. INTRODUCTION

In 2006, a dispute arose between plaintiff John Delois, then a tenant of defendants’ in a “live/work” space on Harrison Street in San Francisco, and defendants. The dispute, described in more detail below, was purportedly resolved by a written agreement between the parties. But various and sundry factors led to alleged breaches of that agreement; in any event, plaintiff did not vacate the premises on the date agreed upon in the settlement agreement and, as a result, defendants did not forgive the past due rent or return the security deposit as they would have done pursuant to that agreement.

After vacating the premises, plaintiff filed a 10-cause-of-action complaint against defendants alleging, e.g., various torts and breaches of contract regarding defendants’ actions. Defendants countered with a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) motion under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 (section 425.16) asking that all 10 causes of action be stricken. The trial court ruled that defendants had satisfied the first prong of that section as to all 10 causes of action, but not the second prong as to four of them. It thus struck six of…