VAN NUYS (CNS) - The CEO and founder of the Hollywood Creative Alliance is urging a judge to reject a motion by the Broadcast Film Critics Association to dismiss on free-speech grounds a defamation suit tied to the association's call for members to leave the HCA if they want to remain association members.

Prior to the Van Nuys Superior Court suit's Jan. 29 filing, the association announced that HCA members would no longer be allowed to be association members and that those who were members of both groups would need to prove they had left the HCA if they wanted to keep their association membership.

The association's actions caused dozens of HCA members to resign after they made "heartfelt" apologies to HCA leadership, the suit states.

In a sworn statement filed Thursday with Judge Eric Harmon in advance of a scheduled May 8 hearing on the association's anti-SLAPP motion, the HCA's Scott Menzel says the association's actions have had a substantial impact on the plaintiff's organization.

"The departures have been incredibly disruptive to HCA's work and mission," Menzel said. "The organization is not wealthy and depends on dues from members to conduct its operations."

Revenues were less than expected due to the number of members who left, Menzel says.

When the large number of members resigned, HCA had already begun working on its upcoming television awards ceremony and many departed members would have played key roles by participating in nominating committees, according to Menzel.

"Most significantly, (the association) has done damage to HCA's reputation," according to Menzel. "While the full extent of the monetary damage this assault has done cannot yet be fully known, it is highly likely to disrupt negotiations for streaming or broadcast of our awards shows and will undoubtedly depress consumer and media interest in many other projects we have worked on, including after shows, interviews and moderator opportunities."

In addition, remaining members' reputations for fair and insightful voting will be degraded, Menzel says.

The state's anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law is intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights. In their motion filed April 11, association attorneys maintain that all allegations in the HCA complaint are based solely upon the association's acts "in furtherance of their First Amendment rights because each is based on a privileged email from the board of directors of (the association) to its members."

In their court papers, HCA attorneys dispute that the email is protected speech.

"If self-generated publicity converts a dispute among competitors into a public issue, there are no effective limitations to the anti-SLAPP statute," according to the HCA lawyers' pleadings. "Even if the email were privileged, HCA will establish that the defendants made false statements in the email with malice."

The HCA suit alleges that the association has maligned the HCA's reputation in an attempt to "boycott and steal" HCA members. The suit seeks injunctive relief as well as compensatory and punitive damages. Association co- founder Joey Berlin also is a defendant.

But in their anti-SLAPP motion, association lawyers argue that an "indispensable component of the freedom of association is the freedom to identify the people who constitute the association and to limit the association to those people only," adding, that the composition of a membership "defines the quality and character of the group."

The association was founded in 1995 and is made up of more than 600 television, radio and online critics, journalists and bloggers.

The HCA was created in 2016 to celebrate and elevate diverse and underrepresented voices in film criticism. It was originally called the Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society and later the Hollywood Critics Association before assuming its current name.