In White Lighting Co. v. Wolfson (1968) 68 Cal.2d 336, the Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that "a claim based on excessive attachment constitutes a cause of action for abuse of process rather than for malicious prosecution and such a claim may be brought in the action in which the attachment issued." (White Lighting, supra, 68 Cal.2d at p. 341.) For that reason, the Supreme Court determined that the trial court had erred in sustaining a general demurrer to the cause of action for abuse of process in the cross-complaint. (Id. at p. 351.) The White Lighting decision did not address the issue of whether the section 47(b) litigation privilege would bar the abuse of process claim.