SMP Construction & Maintenance v. Holsten CA1/5

I. BACKGROUND2

In January 2022, Holsten hired SMP to perform construction and foundation work at her residence. During the course of this work, “several disputes arose between [SMP] and [Holsten] regarding the quality of the work and the payment amount for the contracted work.” On November 19, 2022, Holsten published a post on Facebook summarizing her dispute. The post began: “Most recent episode in the saga of my foundation construction work: ‘Engineering company falsified their paperwork in collusion with the contractors.’ ” The post then claimed that “the foundation company [did a] bait and switch, outright lies” but did not identify SMP (or its dba Foundation Repair of California) by name. The post ended: “Now I have to decide how far I want to take this. I could nail both the engineering and foundation companies to the wall for fraud[] over this.” In the comments to this post, Holsten engaged in a back-and-forth conversation with another Facebook user who was a state inspector. The two discussed the specifics of Holsten’s dispute with SMP, including a fraudulent special inspection report. It is only in one of her comments in response to the inspector’s query that Holsten…