The Third Appellate District affirmed trial court orders granting a special motion to strike and denying preliminary injunctive relief. The court held that chiropractors failed to show any impropriety where an insurance company purportedly took depositions in an auto accident case with the ulterior motive of gathering evidence for use in an unfair business practices action challenging the legality of the ownership of certain chiropractic practices.
In an underlying case, two persons filed uninsured motorist claims with State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company after an alleged hit-and-run car accident. State Farm took depositions of the treating chiropractors, as well as Fue Lee, D.C., Chou Thao, and Richard Lysuwan. The depositions revealed that Community Family Chiropractic was ownd by a partnership of Lee and Thao, and that Good Chiropractic was owned by a partnership of Lee and Lysuswan.
