It's always nice when the holding of a case is cogently summarized in its first couple of paragraphs, and that happens here:
"In a prior lawsuit, plaintiff Maryam Fazel sued her neighbor due to water intrusion emanating from her neighbor’s property. The neighbor retained Pete Fowler Construction Services (Fowler Construction or Fowler) as an expert. Fowler Construction prepared an expert report in which it recommended repairs that later formed the basis of a settlement of the lawsuit. After the repairs were implemented and the underlying suit settled, however, the water intrusion returned.
In the present lawsuit, Fazel sued Fowler Construction for negligence in the formulation of the repairs. The court entered judgment on the pleadings in favor of Fowler, ruling that Fowler’s recommendations were generated for an expert report in the course of litigation, and thus the absolute litigation privilege barred Fazel’s suit. We agree and affirm the judgment."
The remainder of Justice Sanchez's short-but-sweet opinion also smartly addresses the underlying details as well as the unsuccessful arguments to the contrary. Nicely done.
