The First Appellate District reversed a trial court order. The court held that the trial court erred in finding that the activity alleged in causes of action for wrongful and retaliatory eviction was not protected under the anti-SLAPP statute.
San Francisco residents Cheryl Wallace and John Owen sued their landlords, Victor and Lawrence Wu, and their neighbors, Lois McCubbin and Joshua Merck, for multiple causes of action arising from the defendants’ alleged campaign to force Wallace and Owen from their apartment. Wallace’s and Owen’s problems began, they alleged, when Wallace acquired a medically necessary service dog. Both their landlords and neighbors McCubbin and Merck were unwilling to accede to Wallace’s lawful possession of a service animal and engaged in multiple acts intended to remove Wallace and Owen and/or the dog from the premises.
