Sadeghi

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiff owns the The LAB (Little American Business) Antimall (LAB) and The CAMP (CAMP) retail shopping centers in Costa Mesa. Between 2006 and 2008 defendant worked at a restaurant located in the LAB. In early 2006 she opened a retail store, the Road Less Traveled (Road) in Santa Ana. At that time it was a “green/natural living goods store.” 2 In December 2011 the OC Weekly published an article, written by Michelle Woo (Woo), about plaintiff and the LAB, entitled “Meet Shaheen Sadeghi, the LAB Man” (Article). The Article was lengthy. The trial court counted 68 paragraphs in the downloaded version. Woo interviewed plaintiff, competitors, and tenants, current and former, for the Article. As the trial court noted, some of their comments about plaintiff were “laudatory, some not.” As summarized by the trial court’s ruling, plaintiff “is prominently featured on the front page of the issue, with a drawing of the plaintiff occupying perhaps two- 1 He also listed a purported ninth cause of action for injunctive relief; however that is merely a remedy, not a substantive claim. (Shamsian v. Atlantic Richfield Co. (2003) 107 Cal.App.4th 967, 984-985.) 2 The…