Dismissed Jones Act Claim Is Still a SLAPP

Curtin Maritime Corp. v. Pacific Dredge & Construction, LLC, No. D078217 (D4d1 Mar. 22, 2022)

This is an anti-SLAPP appeal based on a theory that a competitor’s false certification to the Coast Guard to obtain a certification under the Jones Act* that its vessel was U.S. made violated the UCL. Defendant took an appeal after it lost the motion in the trial court. But the Plaintiff tried to dismiss the complaint while the appeal was pending, claiming the dismissal rendered the appeal moot. 

Not so. An appeal automatically stays trial court proceedings for any matter embraced or affected by the appeal. Code Civ. Proc. § 916. Since the validity of a complaint is embraced by an anti-SLAPP appeal, the automatic stay precluded the dismissal. And in any event, the appeal isn’t moot because a reversal will permit the defendant to claim fees on remand under § 425.16(c).

On the merits, on prong 1, the crux of Plaintiff’s claim entailed an allegation that Defendant submitted a false application for certification to the Coast Guard. That’s protected activity. On prong 2, the claim was preempted by the Jones Act, which the court finds gives the federal government the exclusive authority to determine what vessels satisfy the Jones Act.

Reversed.

*The Jones Act requires commercial vessels that sail in wholly domestic commerce—between two U.S. ports—to be manufactured domestically.