Friedberg v. Cox

In Friedberg v. Cox (1987) 197 Cal.App.3d 381, a defendant in a malicious prosecution action had obtained a summary judgment on the ground the underlying action had not been terminated favorably to the malicious prosecution plaintiff. The plaintiff in the underlying action (defendant in the malicious prosecution case) had obtained a judgment on one cause of action, but lost on three others. In the course of rejecting the malicious prosecution claim based on a partial favorable termination, the Friedberg court had included a discussion of the "'primary right' theory of pleading followed in California" (id. at p. 388) and had relied in part on that theory in holding that only one "primary right" was violated in the underlying case, and, by prevailing on one cause of action, the plaintiff had successfully remedied the breach of that single right.