Parker v. Kalish
Plaintiff Robert Parker (Parker) appeals from the trial court's order (the order) granting defendant Mark Kalish, M.D.'s special motion to strike Parker's complaint under Code of Civil Procedure[1] section 425.16, commonly referred to as the anti-SLAPP statute, which authorizes the early dismissal of certain lawsuits that qualify as a "strategic lawsuit against public participation" (SLAPP). (Equilon Enterprises v. Consumer Cause, Inc. (2002) 29 Cal.4th 53, 57 (Equilon); Navellier v. Sletten (2002) 29 Cal.4th 82, 85 (Navellier).) Kalish's motion challenged the propriety of Parker's action for damages he allegedly suffered as a result of a court-ordered defense psychiatric examination that Kalish performed in connection with Parker's underlying lawsuit against his neighbors. We affirm the order and judgment in favor of Kalish because (1) Kalish's conduct as alleged in Parker's complaint was merely incidental to Kalish's protected activity under the court order authorizing him to perform the psychiatric examination, and thus Kalish met his burden of showing Parker's lawsuit against him substantially arose from protected activity for purposes of the anti-SLAPP statute; and (2) Parker failed to show a probability of prevailing on the merits of any of his five causes of action.
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