Paul, Weiss Wins Anti-SLAPP Action on Behalf of Make the Road New York

Paul, Weiss won summary judgment on a counterclaim brought under the New York State Civil Rights Law Section 70-a (the anti-SLAPP statute) on behalf of pro bono client Make the Road New York (Make the Road), a nonprofit committed to building the power of immigrant and working class communities to achieve dignity and justice, and two former Make the Road organizers. Our clients prevailed on their anti-SLAPP claim after showing that the owners of the Park Hill Section 8 housing project on Staten Island had filed an unlawful strategic lawsuit against public participation, or a “SLAPP” suit, in violation of our clients’ First Amendment rights.

Prior to the lawsuit, Make the Road had been organizing the tenants of Park Hill to help them more effectively demand that management remedy the abysmal conditions in Park Hill’s federally subsidized apartment buildings and enforce those demands in housing court. When management failed to address tenants’ grievances and instead attempted to retaliate against the tenant organizers and to suppress their organizational efforts, Make the Road alerted the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Park Hill then filed a lawsuit alleging that our clients had committed various intentional torts ranging from defamation to tortious interference with Park Hill’s business relations with HUD, for which Park Hill sought a minimum of $25 million in damages.

From the beginning, our clients maintained that plaintiffs’ claims were retaliatory and designed to suppress lawful tenant organizing at Park Hill. During the course of the three-and-a-half year litigation, Paul, Weiss won the dismissal of all of plaintiffs’ claims and counterclaims under New York’s rarely invoked anti-SLAPP statute. In granting summary judgment on that counterclaim, the court found that Park Hill was a “public permitee” under the statute, had filed an action that was “materially related” to Make the Road’s opposition to Park Hill’s public permissions, and had failed to show that its lawsuit against our clients had a substantial basis in fact and law. The court required Park Hill to cover Make the Road’s attorney fees and costs.

The Paul, Weiss team includes litigation associates Jeremy Benjamin, Benjamin Bergmann, Makiko Hiromi and Paloma Rivera. The matter is being supervised by litigation partner Gregory Laufer.