In Liu v. Moore (1999) 69 Cal.App.4th 745, the defendant Liu filed a cross-complaint against Moore and others, and in response, Moore filed an anti-SLAPP motion. Prior to the hearing, Liu dismissed the cross-complaint as to Moore only without prejudice. Moore then sought attorney fees as authorized by the anti-SLAPP statute. ( 425.16, subd. (c)(1) "prevailing defendant on a special motion to strike shall be entitled to recover his or her attorney's fees and costs".) The trial court denied the motion, reasoning that the dismissal of Moore nullified her anti-SLAPP motion and precluded a finding that she was a prevailing party entitled to fees. (Liu v. Moore, supra, 69 Cal.App.4th 69 at p. 749.) Moore appealed from the order, and the court reversed. The court observed that the purpose of the anti-SLAPP statute is "to give relief, including financial relief in the form of attorney's fees and costs, to persons who have been victimized by meritless, retaliatory SLAPP lawsuits because of their 'participation in matters of public significance' ." (Id. at p. 750, quoting 425.16, subd. (a).) The court explained that the trial court's ruling would effectively negate an important part of the relief the Legislature intended to provide to SLAPP defendants, frustrate the purpose of discouraging plaintiffs from filing SLAPP suits, and "prolong both the defendant's predicament and the plaintiff's outrageous behavior." (69 Cal.App.4th at p. 750.) Accordingly, the court held that "a defendant who is voluntarily dismissed, with or without prejudice, after filing an anti-SLAPP motion, is nevertheless entitled to have the merits of such motion heard as a predicate to a determination of the defendant's motion for attorney's fees and costs ... ." (Id. at p. 751.)