Bonni

*854 Plaintiff Aram Bonni, a surgeon, sued St. Joseph Hospital of Orange (St. Joseph), Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center (Mission), and other defendants for, inter alia, retaliation under Health and Safety Code, section 1278.5 (the whistleblower statute). 1 Plaintiff alleged defendants retaliated against him for his whistleblower complaints by summarily suspending his medical staff privileges and conducting hospital peer review proceedings.

In response to plaintiff's filing of his first amended complaint (FAC), defendants filed a special motion under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 (the anti-SLAPP statute) 2 to strike plaintiff's retaliation cause of action, asserting his claim arose from the protected activity of hospital peer review proceedings.

The court granted defendants' anti-SLAPP motion as to both St. Joseph and Mission. The court determined, first, that defendants had met prong one *855 of the anti-SLAPP statute's two-part test, which requires a moving defendant to show the plaintiff's claim arose from activity protected under that statute. ( Equilon Enterprises v. Consumer Cause, Inc. (2002) 29 Cal.4th 53 , 67, 124 Cal.Rptr.2d 507 , 52 P.3d 685 ( Equilon…