In Baharian-Mehr v. Glenn Smith, et. al. 2010 DJDAR 15946 (2010) the Fourth District of the California Court of Appeal, held that the special motion to strike procedure set forth in CCP § 425.16 was not applicable to a business dispute. The court also affirmed the grant of an attorney fee award rendered against the Defendant. The court granted fees after finding the Defendants’ motion was frivolous.

Baharian-Mehr (Mehr) formed a business entity with the Glenn Defendants. Mehr thereafter discovered alleged accounting irregularities in the business and he sued his partners for an accounting, fraud and related business torts. In response to the complaint, the Defendants filed a special motion to strike pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure Section 425.16, the anti-SLAPP statute. The court denied the motion, finding that the subject matter of the litigation of the case was a business dispute, which was not a proper subject for an anti-SLAPP motion.