[Posted February 25, 2005]
Bills
No current or past anti-SLAPP bills have been identified.
Cases
Webb v. Fury
Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, 1981 (167 W.Va. 434, 282 S.E.2d 28)
This is one of the earliest cases to secure the right of early dismissal of a SLAPP.
Webb communicated with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Office of Surface Mining concerning the practices of a coal mining company, and wrote about the practices in the newsletter of an environmental protection organization. The company sued Webb for defamation. Webb moved for dismissal and summary judgment on the grounds that his conduct was constitutionally privileged. The trial court denied the motions, refused to certify to the Supreme Court of Appeals the questions raised by the motion to dismiss, and ordered the parties to go forth with discovery. Webb petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeals for a writ.
The court ruled: "While the denial of a motion to dismiss is not usually an error for which prohibition will lie, prohibition will be used to examine the propriety of such a ruling when, as here, the ruling invades the unique constitutional guarantee of the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances contained in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and article III, Section 16 of the Constitution of West Virginia."
"Prohibition will lie to prohibit a case from proceeding to trial when the remedy of appeal is manifestly inadequate to protect against the chilling effect of allowing a suit to proceed because the complaint, as a matter of constitutional law, contains insufficient allegations to warrant an interference with a citizen's right to petition his government."
The court ruled that Webb's conduct was absolutely privileged under his constitutional right of petition.
"The people's right to petition the government for a redress of grievances is a clear constitutional right and the exercise of that right does not give rise to a cause of action for damages." "... [W]e shudder to think of the chill our ruling would have on the exercise of the freedom of speech and the right to petition were we to allow this lawsuit to proceed. ... We see this dispute between the parties as a vigorous exchange of ideas which is more properly within the political arena than in the courthouse."
A dozen years later in the case of Harris v. Adkins (1993; 189 W.Va. 465, 432 S.E.2d 549) the court limited its holding in Webb v. Fury. The Harris court said:
"...[W]e hold that the right to petition the government found in Section 16 of Article III of the West Virginia Constitution is comparable to that found in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. It does not provide an absolute privilege for intentional and reckless falsehoods, but the right is protected by the actual malice standard of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.... To the extent that Webb v. Fury states to the contrary, it is overruled.
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