Purcell-Murray
Purcell-Murray v. Clark Law Group CA1/1
Opinion
Opinion
Dondero, J.
INTRODUCTION
Defendants the Clark Law Group (Clark) and Water, Inc. (Water) appeal from the order denying their special motion to strike the malicious prosecution action filed against them by plaintiff Purcell-Murray Company, Inc. (PMC) as a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 (section 425.16).1 Defendants argue the trial court erred in denying their anti-SLAPP motion because PMC did not meet its burden of establishing a probability of prevailing on the merits of its malicious prosecution lawsuit. We affirm.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
I. The Underlying Action
PMC is a distributor of premium kitchen and bath products, including the Everpure brand of water filtration products manufactured by Pentair Residential Filtration, LLC (Everpure). Everpure appointed PMC as its distributor for the states of
1 All further statutory references are to the Code of Civil Procedure unless otherwise indicated. 1 California, Arizona, and Nevada effective September 1, 2008. Previously, Water had long been the exclusive distributor of Everpure water filtration products in California and other western states. Alleging…