Cairns

INTRODUCTION

Nigel Cairns sued Lions Community Service Corporation (Lions Community) for intentional infliction of emotional distress after it initiated proceedings to evict him from his apartment. Cairns alleged Lions Community sought to evict him in retaliation after he raised questions about possible racial bias against Black tenants in its subsidized housing facility. Lions Community filed a special motion to strike the operative complaint under the anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuits against public participation) statute, arguing that Cairns’s claim against it was based on protected

petitioning activity. (Code Civ. Proc., § 425.16.)1 The trial court denied the motion on the ground that Cairns’s allegation that the eviction was discriminatory, and therefore unlawful, insulated his claim from the anti- SLAPP statute. We reverse. Our high court confirmed in Wilson v. Cable News Network, Inc. (2019) 7 Cal.5th 871, 892 (Wilson) that claims based on protected activities alleged to have been unlawful because they were done for a discriminatory or retaliatory reason are not exempt from the anti-SLAPP statute. Here, Cairns’s claim against Lions Community arose from protected petitioning…