Trope Prohibition At Issue.
In Catanzarite Law Corp. v. Michelman & Robinson, Case No. G048540 (4th Dist., Div. 3 Feb. 19, 2015) (unpublished), two defendant law firms SLAPP-ed a plaintiff law firm suing the defendants in a suit by which plaintiff claimed the other firms interfered with plaintiff’s contingency fee agreement between ex-clients failing to honor the agreement after the two defendants took over representation of the ex-clients. The lower court also awarded defendants fees under the SLAPP fee-shifting provision.
Acting Presiding Justice Bedsworth, in a 2-1 opinion, affirmed the SLAPP merits but struck the fee award because the defendant firms represented themselves in the case.
This was based on Trope v. Katz, 11 Cal.4th 274 (1995), which has been applied in SLAPP contexts as far as fees are concerned.
Justice Moore, dissenting, disagreed with the merits SLAPP result but did agree that fees were not justified as to the defendants.