RICO case dismissed
on Nov 15, 2005 at 3:44 pm
The Supreme Court’s clerk on Tuesday dismissed, by agreement of the parties, the case of Bank of China, New York Branch v. NBM LLC (docket 03-1559). The case was dismissed under the Court’s Rule 46.1, providing for dismissal at any stage of the proceedings when the parties agreed in writing. The dismissal is usually done without reference of the issue to the Court.
This case, scheduled for argument on Monday, Jan. 9, raised the issue whether those who file civil RICO claims based on allegations of mail or wire fraud as underlying acts must show a reliance upon fraudulent statements, or whether it was suffiicent to prove knowledge of the fraud. The issue is said to arise frequently in civil RICO cases. Lower courts have reached conflicting decisions on the reliance issue. The dismissal of the case leaves the issue as is.
Rule 46.1 is usually invoked when a case has been settled. There was no indication in the clerk’s order on Tuesday what led to the agreement to have this case dismissed.
The dismissal means that only nine cases are scheduled for argument in the January sitting.
(Disclosure: The firm of Goldstein & Howe was in the case on behalf of respondents. The author of this post is independent of the law practice, and learned of the dismissal from the Court.)
