Understanding the Wall of Wrong — Shaheed Sadeghi v. Delilah Snell

Shaheed Sadeghi and the wall of wrong

Shaheen Sadeghi and the Wall of Wrong.

I just wish counsel would run their defamation cases past me before filing. Here is a tale of a SLAPP that should have been spotted a mile away.

The tale starts with an article in OC Weekly. The article was about a guy named Shaheen Sadeghi. The article was extremely favorable to Sadeghi, referring to him as the “Curator of Cool” and discussing his amazing success in Orange County. OC Weekly even put his visage on the cover of the paper. Truly, it was a positive article that most would kill for.

But everyone has their detractors, and Sadeghi’s was a woman named Delilah Snell. After disclosing that Snell happens to be the girlfriend of a OC Weekly editor, the article reports on a dustup between Snell and Sadeghi, as told by Snell. Here is what the article said:

Still, some say Sadeghi will do whatever it takes to succeed. Delilah Snell, owner of Road Less Traveled, a shop in Santa Ana that sells environmentally friendly gifts and home goods, met with him in 2008 to discuss an opportunity to move to the Camp. (Full disclosure: Snell is the girlfriend of OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano.) She says the rent rate he gave was way too high, at least triple what she was paying, and she declined the offer. Then, she claims, he made a threat. “He basically said to me, ‘If you don’t move into my center, I will copy your business,'” she says.

Snell, co-founder of the Patchwork Indie Arts & Crafts Festival and a pioneer in Orange County’s eco-movement, believes her store is the model for the Camp’s SEED People’s Market, an airy, 12,000-square-foot gallery-type outlet that sells sustainable products and handmade crafts. Sadeghi owns the store with his wife, Linda. Snell claims that SEED has approached many of the vendors featured at Road Less Traveled and even used a photo of her shop in a promotional email sent out to customers. (The Weekly has a copy of the email.)

The article then goes on to tell Sadeghi’s side of the story:

Of Snell’s accusations, Sadeghi responds, “I think she’s full of it.” He says his business plan for SEED was dated “five years before she developed a business plan.”

“It’s a whole different store, whole different vibe,” he says, “and it has nothing to do with Road Less Traveled.”

The article then returns to singing the praises of Sadeghi, providing examples of how he is beloved by his tenants at his business centers like The Lab in Costa Mesa.

Sadeghi sued Snell in Orange County Superior Court, alleging in his complaint that Snell “orally accused Mr. Sadeghi of threatening to copy Ms. Snell’s business idea and plan if Ms. Snell did not move into Plaintiff’s retail center.” Sadeghi then alleged causes of action for slander, slander per se, libel, libel per se, invasion of privacy/false light, intentional interference with economic prospective advantage (sic), negligent interference with economic prospective advantage (sic), unfair competition, and injunctive relief. Whew! All arising from the statements Snell allegedly made to the OC Weekly, claiming that Sadeghi had said “If you don’t move into my center, I will copy your business.”

A Quick Aside to Discuss the “Wall of Wrong”.

A potential client will call me, and during the call will tell me about 20 evil deeds committed by the defendant. They have been horribly wronged, and they want to sue. Fair enough, but for a legal action each wrongful deed must be viewed independently to determine if it is actionable. I call the wrongful acts the “Wall of Wrong,” and each wrongful act is an item on that wall. I explain to the client that to determine if there is a case, we must walk up to the wall, take down each item and examine it independently to see if it will support an action. If not, it is tossed away never to be discussed again.

The reason this exercise is so important is because the client has a perception of being slammed by the defendant, and is absolutely convinced that all that wrongdoing must equate to an action, but when all the conduct that does not support the action is stripped away, the client will often see that what is left remaining is pretty petty.

Some prospective clients simply cannot perform this analysis. There is something in their genes that prevents them from taking anything off the table. It is sometimes the case that the defamation has been going on for years, meaning that many of the statements will be outside the statute of limitations (SOL). The caller continues to provide examples that cannot be the basis of an action, even after I ask that the examples be limited to the past year.

Another common scenario is where some aspect of the “wrongs” has been determined, but the caller cannot separate the past issue from the current issue. For example, the caller was arrested for and convicted of domestic violence. They serve their jail sentence, and upon release, want to renew their relationship with their children. However, their ex fights the proposed visitation schedule, and they call me wanting to sue for what the ex said in her court declaration, and wants to include a claim for malicious prosecution for the original domestic violence case.

Those two separate wrongs must be viewed individually. The proposed malicious prosecution action is dead on arrival, because that claim requires proof that the matter was resolved in the plaintiff’s favor. In our hypothetical, the plaintiff went to jail, so that required element is missing. And as to the false statements in the declaration, any statements made in relation to a court action are absolutely privileged, and cannot be the basis of a defamation action.

So back to Mr. Sadeghi. Let’s take him to the Wall of Wrong to see if he has a viable defamation action. In his case, there are only two items: (1) the claim that he was going to copy Snell’s business, and (2) that he pressured Snell to lease space in his center with the aforesaid threat. Let’s take those items off the shelf one at a time and decide if they will support a suit.

“I will copy your business.”

Sadeghi alleged that he never made this statement. So, is it defamatory to falsely claim that someone said you were going to copy their business? Of course not. It does not accuse Sadeghi of any wrongdoing. As the court put it in granting the anti-SLAPP motion, “Pepsi copies Coke. Gimbel’s Copies Macy’s. This is the nature of business.” Take that statement from the Wall of Wrong and never speak of it again. It will not support a defamation claim or any other cause of action, because there is nothing wrong with copying a business. A statement is not defamatory just because it is false.

Pressuring Snell to lease space.

Is it wrong to pressure someone to lease space? Of course not. Is it wrong to say you will copy their business if they don’t lease space? Let’s consider that one for a moment by using an analogy. Let’s say you have a chain of pizza restaurants, and a landlord comes to you and says, “we really want a pizza place like yours in our center, so we just want you to know that if you don’t lease the space and open one of your great pizza restaurants, we’re going to create a pizza place just like yours for our center.”

Anything wrong with that? Sure, he’s pressuring you to rent the space with the threat of opening a competitor if you don’t, but that’s fair. When a landlord is looking for an anchor store in their mall, don’t you think they play Macy’s and Nordstrom off one another? Take that statement from the Wall of Wrong and never speak of it again.

We are left with nothing to support the action, and it should not have been filed. A proper application of my Wall of Wrong approach would have made clear that Sadeghi should not pursue legal action. The trial court was correct in granting the special motion to strike.

A SLAPP is not saved by numerous theories.

The other essential takeaway from this case is that nine causes of action do not a case make if the basis for the action is defective. In other words, if it was not defamatory for Snell to claim that Sadeghi said “If you don’t move into my center, I will copy your business,” then those words will not support any other legal theories like intentional infliction of emotional distress or unfair competition.

I get many calls decrying California’s SLAPP statute. No doubt, Mr. Sadeghi was frustrated that the anti-SLAPP statute resulted in the dismissal of what he considered to be an entirely valid action. But that’s the point. Snell’s speech did not amount to defamation, and the anti-SLAPP statute served its intended purpose by providing Snell with a streamlined process to dispose of the action.

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Aaron Morris
Morris & Stone, LLP
Orchard Technology Park
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Lake Forest, CA 92630
(714) 954-0700

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