On June 26, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an opinion and judgment in favor of two individuals and their limited liability company, affirming the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania’s full dismissal of all claims in the case. The case involved civil Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization (“RICO”) Act claims, related federal trade secret and computer fraud claims, and state law defamation and replevin claims. According to plaintiffs, defendants developed a scheme to defraud them and seize control of their business.
Attorney Ralph Monico and Samuel Evans argued that plaintiffs had improperly weaponized the civil claim component of RICO to cast a simple business dispute as racketeering and that regardless, plaintiffs had neither pled nor shown that they could plead predicate facts to support civil RICO claims, or any of the remaining federal court claims. The District Court agreed to characterize plaintiffs’ claims as the “poster child” for concerns associated with the misuse of civil RICO claims. The District Court dismissed all federal claims with prejudice, entered judgment against plaintiffs and in favor of defendants, and declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims.