[Download] "Neville v. Chudacoff" by Colorado Supreme Court # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Neville v. Chudacoff
- Author : Colorado Supreme Court
- Release Date : January 12, 2008
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 77 KB
Description
This is an appeal from an order granting a special motion to strike under the anti- SLAPP statute. (Code Civ. Proc., 425.16.) An employer fired one of its employees amid allegations that the employee had misappropriated customer lists and solicited his employers customers to start a competing business. Several months before litigation was commenced by the employer against its former employee, the employers attorney drafted a letter to the employers customers that accused the employee of breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets, and that "suggest[ed]" to the customers that, to avoid potential involvement in any ensuing litigation "as a material witness, or otherwise," the customers should not do business with the former employee. The employee commenced a defamation action against the former employer. We hold that, in the circumstances of this case, the lawyers letter to the customers was a "writing made in connection with an issue under consideration or review by a . . . judicial body" (425.16, subd. (e)(2)) and therefore covered by the anti-SLAPP statute because the letter directly related to the employers claims against the employee, and the employer was seriously and in good faith contemplating litigation against the employee. We therefore affirm.