“Privilege or justification is a defense that acknowledges at least a portion of the conduct of which the plaintiff complains but asserts that the defendant’s conduct was authorized or sanctioned by law. In the narrowest dimension, the absolute and qualified privileges adopted in California are defined by statute with respect to libel and slander. With that beginning, the California courts have expanded the scope of the statutory privilege to apply to other causes of action and have recognized a number of additional privileges and circumstances in which the defendant’s conduct may be said to be privileged or justified, barring the plaintiff’s recovery.”
[California Affirmative Defenses [certain citations omitted]]
