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Civil RICO - Avoiding The Pitfalls of Pleading Civil RICO
Civil RICO - Avoiding The Pitfalls of Pleading Civil RICO
by Darrel C. Menthe
Darrel C. Menthe
is an associate with the Los Angeles Civil RICO is a dangerous weapon. It can misfire.
office of McGuire Woods in Los Or even explode in your own hands.
Angeles. His practice is concentrated
in the areas of commercial and
general business litigation and
matters relating to bankruptcy.
His practice also includes outdoor The civil side of Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Orga-
advertising law, First Amendment
law, and unfair business nizations Act (Civil RICO) has endured perennial popularity with busi-
practices. He can be reached at ness tort plaintiffs, despite equally long-lived judicial disquiet. Its enticing
[email protected]. provisions for treble damages and attorneys fees are a siren. As wire and
mail fraud can support a Civil RICO claim, a significant swath of busi-
ness activity can fall within the ambit of a Civil RICO action. Some
are afraid that criminal lawyers are best suited to the task. Not socivil
RICO is a species of tort that any litigator can construct. Other busi-
ness litigators believe that adding a civil RICO claim is little more than
bringing out the big guns. This view is equally misguided.
The Practical Litigator | 55
56 | The Practical Litigator May 2007
Judicial reluctance alone is a formidable bar- ments for RICO far in excess of the usual notice
rier to such claims. Courts hostility to Civil RICO pleading. When local rules do not make such provi-
claims stems, in part, from the fear that every tort sions, the local local rules or standing orders of-
action will morph into a civil RICO claim. To some ten do. Typically, a RICO Pleading Statement must
extent, overzealous litigants who have garnered the accompany the complaint. A plaintiff must look
opprobrium that attaches to RICO claims have for these local rules and seek to comply, or Rule 12
spoiled the pot by bringing civil RICO actions for (and 11) motions can fly quickly. For example, the
such things as overcharges by credit card compa- Southern District of New York requires a plaintiff
nies, in which a normal class action would suffice. to file and serve a RICO Pleading Statement with-
Also, there is plain judicial distaste for perceived in 20 days of filing the complaint, containing all of
misuse of a remedy that was, at least originally, the following:
intended for action against organized crime of the The identity of each defendant and the al-
Sopranos variety. A lawyer considering bringing leged misconduct and basis for liability for
a civil RICO suit must, therefore, jump through each defendant;
quite a few judicial hoops. A list of all alleged wrongdoers who are not
Just as crucial, however, and far more over-
defendants, and the misconduct of each
looked, is the need to traverse an equally treacherous
wrongdoer;
statutory and procedural minefield, requiring care-
A list of all alleged victims and how each was
ful planning and consideration of the terrain ahead.
allegedly injured;
This article will address both the procedural and
A list of all the predicate acts being relied on;
strategic concerns in bringing a Civil RICO suit.
All dates, participants, and other surrounding
facts for each predicate act;
CHOOSING A FORUM The first issue to con-
The time, place, and contents of the repre-
front is the choice of forum. RICO claims arise
sentations for wire and mail fraud claims, and
under federal law, thus can be brought at a federal
an explanation of how they form a pattern of
level, but some states will entertain them. See Tafflin
v. Levitt, 493 U.S. 455 (1990) (holding that RICO racketeering activity;
is not exclusively federal). Several states also have A description of the alleged RICO enterprise
their own little RICO statutes, creating explicit in detail, with names of all individuals, corpo-
state causes of action. These come with their own rations, and partnerships that comprise it;
pitfalls, of course. The biggest danger, from the A description of the structure, purpose, na-
plaintiff s perspective, is that the dearth of case law ture, and course of conduct of the enterprise.
about state little RICO statutes may create some- And there about a two dozen more specific require-
thing of a Catch-22: When courts want to, they can ments for each subsection of RICO, requiring spe-
draw on federal case law by analogy to justify rul- cific pleading about damages. All of this must be
ing against a claim, but none of the favorable law is done without discovery. Moreover, the New York
binding authority that can protect a complaint. rule explicitly invokes Rule 11s reasonable inqui-
While the federal forum is a natural first choice ry requirement as its justificationindicating that
for most plaintiffs, particularly in states with strict Rule 11 sanctions may come quickly for a plaintiff
pleading rules, there are also disadvantages worth who cannot meet that high burden. Rules such as
weighing. To begin with, most federal courts have these substantially diminish the normal pleading
adopted local rules with strict pleading require- advantage of resorting to federal courts.
Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Civil RICO | 57
Because state courts play host to RICO claims activity. Courts often take a dim view of discovery
less frequently, they may lack the special pleading regarding certain (often quite salacious) transac-
requirements for civil RICO in federal courts. In tions that did not cause the alleged damage to the
the many states whose civil procedure is based on plaintiff, believing such investigation is intended
the federal rules, then, state suits may actually be merely to cause embarrassment (which may not be
more attractive if the plaintiff does not yet have all far off the mark). The advantage of circumventing
of the details. the federal pleading statements for civil RICO is
The great difficulty with meeting such plead- substantially mitigated if discovery is blocked.
ing requirements is in the nature of the pattern of The plaintiff s job, then, is to remind the court
racketeering activity. It normally includes pleading that the purpose of RICO was to create liability in
acts against others, in which the plaintiff was not in- parties for acts that otherwise might not meet all
volved, where factual discovery may be needed be- the elements of a tort. It is not necessary, indeed
fore a sufficiently detailed pleading can be drafted. highly unlikely, that a plaintiff can match up each
Pleading a pattern of activity is always difficult, for RICO defendant with each act of racketeering al-
while a plaintiff knows of its own injury, it can have leged, or match each pleaded act with damages to
great difficulty pleading other actsagainst oth- itself. The likelihood that discovery regarding third
erswith specificity. By way of contrast, plaintiffs parties may be blocked is a reminder of the key
pressing employment discrimination claims often to all civil RICO pleadings: At all stages, the civil
have to prove a pattern of discrimination against RICO plaintiff must focus the court on the whole
others. They start by making barebones allegations conspiracythe web of relationships and wrong-
of a pattern of behavior, then use discovery to fer- doingand avoid being bogged down in details as
ret out the details. They do not have to collect the long as possible.
details before pleading. Under civil RICO, unions Finally, it is worth remembering that federal
have brought suit in friendlier jurisdictions against subpoena power is more cumbersome than state
employers who hire undocumented workers, alleg- subpoena power in large western states. California,
ing that hiring them costs jobs and lowers wages for example, allows a subpoena to be served any-
of union members. Such suits have survived mo- where in the state, regardless of where the action
tions to dismiss, although damages will not be easy is pending, in contrast to the 100-mile limit of Fed
to calculate. However, it would be very difficult to R. Civ. P. 45. Therefore, state courts should not be
maintain such suits if all the information about il- overlooked until a careful examination of the rela-
legal hiring were required in advance of discovery. tive pleading requirements is made.
On the other hand, state court unfamiliarity
with civil RICO has one glaring downside. Those PLEADING THE PATTERN OF RACKE-
courts may have even greater difficulty in coming TEERING The only acts of racketeering that
to terms with the breadth of activity encompassed can sustain a pattern of racketeering for civil
by the RICO statute. As noted above, one of the RICO are spelled out in section 1961. These are
features of RICO is that the pattern of racketeer- known as predicate acts. It is a rather limited list
ing activity will consist of a set of allegations about of specific federal crimes. RICO emphatically does
actions by defendants against various third parties. not borrow from other statutes beyond the spe-
Thus, a plaintiff is often seeking discovery about cific crimes listed in section 1961. In general, viola-
injuries to third parties and acts unrelated to the tions of state law are irrelevant, unless specifically
plaintiff except insofar as they form a pattern of incorporated by section 1961 (e.g., bribery may in-
58 | The Practical Litigator May 2007
clude violations of state bribery statutes that carry ages to have standing. No injunctive relief is per-
substantial penalties). In addition, even where the mitted to private plaintiffs.
claims involve wire and mail fraud, securities trans- Most importantly, there are four sub-parts to
actions are specifically exempted from this statute, the RICO statute 18 U.S.C. 1962(a) (d), each
and must be pursued, if at all, as shareholder de- with its own standing requirement that hinges on a
rivative actions or other appropriate claims. particular theory of damages. To put it mildly, the
The most common predicate acts to plead are distinctions between these sections are opaque, and
wire and mail fraud, which today encompass most often result in strained pleading for civil RICO. The
fraud claims (as face-to-face fraud is increasingly tendency to plead all four subsections and hope
rare). Regardless of forum, however, RICO mail one sticks is understandable, particularly when key
and wire fraud claims are still fraud claims that facts are unresolved, but better avoided. On the
must be pleaded with some particularity (under Fed other hand, there will be extensive motion practice
R. Civ. P. 9(b) or the state equivalent). anyway in any Civil RICO action, so a plaintiff is
The next hurdle is to establish that there is a unlikely to avoid motions to dismiss by eschewing
pattern of such activity. The pattern of racketeer- extra RICO counts.
ing requires a plaintiff to demonstrate that the
predicate acts alleged show continuity plus rela- Section 1962(a)
tionship. Single acts, no matter how egregious, Section 1962(a) permits a plaintiff to collect
cannot support a civil RICO claim. Nor can sev- damages if it can show it has been financially in-
eral diverse bad acts be stitched together to make a jured by a defendants investment of income from
pattern unless there is some relationship between racketeering in an enterprise that affects interstate
them, such as a common goal of market domina- commerce. For civil RICO purposes, section (a) is
tion (other than, of course, the common identity of rarely applicable. A plaintiff cannot meet the stand-
the actors). ing requirement for section (a) merely by showing
If possible, a plaintiff should portray the predi- that a corporate defendant may have re-invested
cate acts as a regular way of doing business, which ill-gotten income in itself, in order to fund further
has been accepted as a good definition of a pattern. acts of racketeering, however damaging that may,
Sometimes, the connection between predicate acts in fact, be. One of the few ways to apply this stat-
can be shown by pleading additional wrongful acts ute is where a defendant uses income derived from
that are not predicate acts, in order to paint the pic- predicate acts to set up a network of subsidiaries
ture of conspiracy. Unless there is really too little to or affiliates that then carry out harmful or dam-
go on, the plaintiff does best to view the pattern aging acts. Section 1962(a) can, therefore, be used
requirement as an opportunity to educate the court to pin liability for corporate acts on the ultimate
about defendants patterns of wrongdoing. source directing them, if the corporate veil cannot
be pierced.
PLEADING THE SUB-PARTS OF RICO: Incidentally, the requirement that the targeted
1962(a)-(d) If there is a sufficient pattern of enterprise affect interstate commerce is not sim-
racketeering to meet the threshold of a civil RICO ply a hook to justify federal legislation in this area by
claim, the next issue after choosing a forum is to invoking the commerce clause. It is a real require-
navigate the technical details of civil RICOs four ment. The impact on interstate commerce should
subparts. First, unlike its criminal cousin, civil not be assumed, even with a particularly large cor-
RICO requires a plaintiff to have sustained dam- poration. The best practice is to think about the
Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Civil RICO | 59
link, then affirmatively plead it. If so pleaded, it is Although more straightforward in the connec-
unlikely any court will dismiss on those grounds, tion between act and injury, section (c) claims are
because the definition of interstate commerce fraught with pleading pitfalls. First and foremost,
is so broad, and because information and belief under section (c), pleading the RICO enterprise
allegations will create factual issues improper for requires great care. Under sections (a) and (b), the
Rule 12(b) resolution. Failure, however, to plead RICO enterprise is often the mere instrumentality
the effect of an enterprise on interstate commerce of the real defendants operating behind the scenes,
may invite dismissal, or at least the need to amend, also a nominal defendant. Under section (c), how-
giving a defendant the ability to define the scope of ever, the RICO enterprise takes center stage.
the enterprise as purely in-state before a court that Under section 1962(c), case authority holds
likely is seeking grounds to dismiss. that the RICO enterprise can not be named as a
defendant, but is just the instrumentality by which
Section 1962(b) named defendants injured the plaintiff. If pleading
Section 1962(b) permits a plaintiff to collect more than one RICO subsection, then, a plaintiff
damages if it can show it has been is injured by must be careful to make sure that the RICO enter-
a defendants use of income from racketeering to prise is not named as a defendant for the section
acquire control of an enterprise that affects inter- (c) claim, while simultaneously avoiding blowing
state commerce. The distinction between sections hot and cold on the same set of facts. The typical
(a) and (b) is slight, and the latter is often as little private plaintiff will allege that a corporation is the
help to an injured plaintiff as the former. Both sec- section (c) RICO enterprise, while only naming the
tions are directed at mobsters investing in legitimate officers, directors, and affiliate companies as actual
businesses. As a practical matter, a private plaintiff RICO defendants. For example, if a civil RICO
is unlikely to know the connections before the FBI, plaintiff wants to bring a RICO claim against an
and may be more likely to spill the beans to the insurance company for a pattern of mail fraud, the
proper authorities before commencing a civil suit. claim will be against the officers, directors, and af-
filiates of the insurance company, but the insurance
Section 1962(c) And The RICO Enterprise company itself cannot be named as a defendant in
Section 1962(c) is usually the key to civil RICO the section (c) claim.
claims, because it permits a plaintiff to collect This pleading quirk can cause a dilemma.
damages if it can show it has been injured by a Plaintiffs are fond of big pockets. One obvious
defendant conducting the affairs of an enterprise choice for a plaintiff would be to include a separate
affecting interstate commerce through a pattern of claim against the target company as a named de-
racketeering. Under section (c), a plaintiff pleads fendant for ordinary fraud, but that may only serve
that it was financially harmed directly by a predi- to underscore the defendants position that the civil
cate actnot the investment or use of ill-gotten RICO action is just a fraud claim gussied up. Fraud
gains. This is not only the most straightforward sec- claims do not come with treble damages and attor-
tion to plead, but also the most likely. A particularly neys fees.
nasty act is the most likely genesis of the desire to A RICO enterprise need not be a corporation,
bring a civil RICO action. For standing under sec- however. At its barebones, the RICO enterprise
tion (c), then, a plaintiff must plead a pattern of is some sort of organization or group, formal or
racketeering acts, one of which, at least, caused it informal, which has some purpose beyond merely
direct, financial harm. committing the predicate acts. A RICO enterprise
60 | The Practical Litigator May 2007
CONCLUSION Drafting a well-pleaded civil expect federal limits on the number and length of
RICO complaint requires careful assessment of depositions to be honored in a broad-ranging civil
numerous statutory and procedural issues. Some of RICO case. The promise of treble damages and at-
the hurdles may seem irrational, or at least coun- torneys fees is mitigated by the great cost and time
ter-intuitive. Many are traps for the unwary. It will it will take to prosecute the case, plus the higher
take considerably more than just a few connected than average likelihood of dismissal.
acts of wrongdoing to mount a civil RICO claim. Also, good claims can be lost through careless
Most often, a civil RICO claim becomes an expen- pleading. Necessary discovery can be blocked, or
sive distraction that can end up harming the cli- truncated, by hostile courts. And, as a plaintiff, you
ent, for the danger is that a plaintiff s injury can be will basically have the job of convincing the court
shortchanged with all the judicial attention on the that there is serious wrongdoing that could not be
requisite intricacies of RICO pleading. A case that adequately addressed otherwise.
might be better pleaded, and easier won, as mere The primary reason to bring civil RICO claims
fraud may find itself against a much more hostile is not, therefore, to increase the likelihood or size
court if pleaded as civil RICO, with attendant con- of a settlement. Rather, civil RICO best suited to a
sequences. plaintiff for whom showing a pattern of racketeer-
Therefore, plaintiffs who believe that RICO is ing activity is crucial to justifying redress for its own
a cheap and flashy way to draw attention and force injury. It allows a plaintiff to discuss similar acts of
a big settlement (to avoid embarrassment) are bark- wrongdoing, which matters most where the offense
ing up the wrong tree. What you will get, instead, is might not stand up in isolation, or where the of-
lengthy and expensive motion practice, with many fense is minor but the pattern is ugly. The statute
reversals along the way. A civil RICO case will defi- was originally enacted to fight organized crime; a
nitely be farmed out to a large national law firm plaintiff would do well to consider foregoing civil
with substantial resources and a habit of drown- RICO unless it can show there is, at least, a whiff
ing opponents in paperwork. Neither side should of sulfur about the defendants.
Courts are reluctant to entertain civil RICO claims and the procedural barriers are formidable.
At the outset, it is essential to consider the forum. A RICO claim can be brought in federal court or
in some jurisdictions, state court. (Several states also have their own little RICO statutes.) Many
federal courts have adopted local rules with strict pleading requirements for RICO that are far
stricter than the usual notice pleading standard. As an example, the Southern District of New York
requires a plaintiff to file and serve a RICO Pleading Statement containing all of the following:
__ The identity of each defendant and the alleged misconduct and basis for liability for each defendant;
__ A list of all alleged wrongdoers who are not defendants, and the misconduct of each wrongdoer;
__ A list of all alleged victims and how each was allegedly injured;
__ A list of all the predicate acts being relied on;
62 | The Practical Litigator May 2007
__ All dates, participants, and other surrounding facts for each predicate act;
__ The time, place, and contents of the representations for wire and mail fraud claims, and an explanation
of how they form a pattern of racketeering activity;
__ A description of the alleged RICO enterprise in detail, with names of all individuals, corporations, and
partnerships that comprise it;
__ A description of the structure, purpose, nature, and course of conduct of the enterprise.
By contrast, states courts are less likely to have highly specialized requirements fro RICO pleading.
The great difficulty with meeting such pleading requirements is in the nature of the pattern of rack-
eteering activity.
The only acts of racketeering that can sustain a pattern of racketeering for Civil RICO are spelled
out in section 1961, and it is a rather limited list of specific federal crimes (predicate acts).
The next hurdle is to establish that there is a pattern of such activity. The pattern of racketeering
requires a plaintiff to demonstrate that the predicate acts alleged show continuity plus relationship.
Single acts, no matter how egregious, cannot state a Civil RICO claim:
__ Section 1962(a) permits a plaintiff to collect damages if it can show it has been financially injured by a
defendants investment of income from racketeering in an enterprise that affects interstate commerce. For
civil RICO purposes, section (a) is rarely applicable;
__ Section 1962(b) permits a plaintiff to collect damages if can show it has been is injured by a defendants
use of income from racketeering to acquire control of an enterprise that affects interstate commerce. Both
sections (a) and (b) are directed at mobsters investing in legitimate businesses;
__ Section 1962(c) is usually the key to civil RICO claims, because it permits a plaintiff to collect damages
if it can show it has been injured by a defendant conducting the affairs of an enterprise affecting interstate
commerce through a pattern of racketeering. Under section (c), the plaintiff claims it has been injured
directly (and financially) by a predicate act. This is not only the most straightforward section to plead, but
also the most likely. Under section1962 (c), however, the RICO enterprise cannot be a named defendant.
__ Finally, section 1962(d) permits a plaintiff to bring suit if he or she has been injured by a conspiracy to
violate subsections (a)-(c). One reason to bring a section 1962(d) action is to sweep in other defendants with
a less clear nexus to the criminal activity.
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