Small v. Schauermann
George Small, plaintiff and appellant (hereafter plaintiff), appeals from the judgment of dismissal entered after the trial court granted the Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16[1]special motion to strike, commonly referred to as an anti-SLAPP motion,[2]filed by defendants and respondents Keith Schauermann, M.D., St. Bernardine Medical Center, and Suzanne Fullerton van Hall (hereafter referred to collectively as defendants or individually by name). Defendants filed their anti-SLAPP motion in response to plaintiffs complaint seeking damages from them on various theories of recovery including libel, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Plaintiff alleged in that complaint that he is an obstetrician and gynecologist who for many years had staff privileges at St. Bernardine Medical Center (St. Bernardine); after plaintiff left St. Bernardine, he applied for staff privileges at Pioneers Memorial Hospital (Pioneers); Pioneers requested information from St. Bernardine about plaintiff; and St. Bernardine responded in a letter (drafted by its attorney, defendant van Hall, and signed by defendant Schauermann as the then-head of obstetrics and gynecology at St. Bernardine). Statements about plaintiff contained in that letter are the basis for plaintiffs defamation cause of action and are also some but not all of the conduct alleged as the basis for his other theories of recovery.
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