Grewal

Plaintiff Hardev Singh Grewal, a 73-year-old interpreter for the Alameda County Superior Court and a 39-year resident of Fremont, is a *980 well-known member of the Sikh Temple, San Francisco Bay Area (Temple), who, he alleged, “enjoyed a good reputation ... in the Temple and in his occupation.” On two occasions in 2005 the Punjab Times published calumnious statements about plaintiff, and in 2006 he filed suit for defamation. The suit named several defendants, including Amolak Singh Jammu and A.B. Publication, Inc., the editor and publisher of the Punjab Times (when referred to collectively, the Jammu defendants). Another article followed this stating that plaintiff referred to the Temple school as a “madrassa,” a training school for terrorists and students of the Taliban. This caused an amended complaint, and plaintiff’s suit came to include four causes of action for libel.

The Jammu defendants filed a special motion to strike (anti-SLAPP) these causes of action, a motion that was noteworthy in several respects, in that it was filed (1) almost three years after plaintiff’s original complaint; (2) despite that the Jammu defendants had filed verified answers to…