Can a city bring a motion seeking declaratory relief in a federal action seeking to invalidate a rent control ordinance?

Thus, for example, in City of Cotati v. Cashman , supra , 29 Cal.4th 69, 124 Cal.Rptr.2d 519, 52 P.3d 695, the plaintiff city filed a state suit seeking a declaratory judgment that its rent control ordinance was constitutional. The suit followed in time the defendant owners' federal suit seeking declaratory relief invalidating the same ordinance. In the state action, the defendants filed an anti-SLAPP motion alleging the suit arose from their protected activity of filing the federal suit. The motion, we explained, should have been denied because the federal suit formed no part of the basis for the state claim. The city's potential entitlement to a declaratory judgment instead arose from the parties' underlying dispute over whether the ordinance was constitutional, a dispute that existed prior to and independent of any declaratory relief action by the owners. (Id. at p. 80, 124 Cal.Rptr.2d 519, 52 P.3d 695.)