The Renewable Resources Coalition Case: Pleading Around California’s Anti-SLAPP Statute

The California Court of Appeal's recent decision in Renewable Resources Coalition, Inc. v. Pebble Mines Corporation, et al., 218 Cal.App.4th 384 (July 20, 2013), illustrates perfectly the importance of careful drafting of claims as a means to successfully fend off a special motion to strike under Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 425.16, the anti-SLAPP statute. Careful drafting is particularly key in cases where the underlying facts directly or indirectly implicate other litigation proceedings, since those allegations are easily characterized as protected conduct in furtherance of the defendant's right of petition or free speech in connection with a public issue, and as conduct potentially protected as well by the litigation privilege.

The dispute in Renewable Resources related to a mining project proposed for Bristol Bay, Alaska. The plaintiff, Renewable Resources Coalition, Inc. (the "Coalition"), is an Alaskan nonprofit which promotes the preservation of Alaska's fishing and hunting resources. The Coalition for years has opposed plans for the development of the Pebble Mine in Alaska by the defendant Pebble LP and its general partner ("Pebble").

According to the Coalition's complaint, as part of its support of a 2008 Alaska ballot initiative which would have impeded the mine's development, the Coalition hired a professional fundraiser under a contract which restricted the fundraiser's ability to disclose its confidential communications with the Coalition. After the ballot initiative was defeated, the Coalition terminated the fundraiser's contract, and a dispute arose as to payments allegedly due under the contract.

The Coalition's complaint alleged that the fundraiser contacted the Alaska attorneys who represented the Pebble Mine interests in the ballot initiative, as part of its alleged plan to threaten the disclosure of the Coalition's confidential campaign communications and to sell those confidential communications to the Coalition's opponents if it was not paid all amounts it considered due under the contract. The Coalition alleged that, in fact, the fundraiser did turn over confidential communications to Pebble's lawyer and was paid $50,000 in exchange. Pebble's lawyer then allegedly used those documents to prepare and file a complaint with the Alaska Public Offices Commission ("APOC"), which asserted that the Coalition and other nonprofits were used to conceal the fact that substantial contributions in support of the ballot initiative had...