Summit Bank v. Rogers

I.

INTRODUCTION

Summit Bank (the Bank) sued its former employee Robert Rogers (Rogers) for posting allegedly defamatory messages on a section of the Craigslist.org Internet Web site (Craigslist) entitled “Rants and Raves.” The Bank alleged that Rogers, “under the guise of anonymity, made false and libelous statements about [the Bank’s] operations, the integrity of its chief executive officer and founder, the safety of depositors’ funds and made false statements about audits and regulatory actions.” Rogers moved to strike the Bank’s *678 complaint pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16, 1 California’s “anti-SLAPP” statute, on the ground that the suit was brought for the illegitimate purpose of chilling Rogers’s right to speak freely about the Bank. 2 Rogers’s appeal is from the trial court’s order denying his motion to strike after finding (1) the statements made were not protected speech within the meaning of the anti-SLAPP law (§ 425.16, subd. (b)(1)) and (2) the Bank had shown a probability of success on the merits of its defamation claim.

We conclude that the trial court erred in both findings. In so holding, we reject the Bank’s threshold argument that…