AMERICAN NATIONAL BANK & TRUST COMPANY OF CHICAGO et al. v. HAROCO, INC., et al.
No. 84-822.
Argued April 17, 1985
Decided July 1, 1985
Donald E. Egan argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the briefs were Michael Wm. Zavis, Francis X. Grossi, Jr., and Lee Ann Watson.
Aram A. Hartunian argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief was Joel Heilman.
John J. Gill, Johanna M. Sabol, Michael F. Crotty, and Edward F. Mannino filed a brief for the American Bankers Association as amicus curiae urging reversal.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the State of Arizona et al. by the Attorneys General for their respective States as follows: Robert K. Corbin of Arizona, Norman C. Gorsuch of Alaska, John Van de Kamp of California, Duane Woodard of Colorado, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Joe Smith of Florida, Michael Lilly of Hawaii, Jim Jones of Idaho, Neil Hartigan of Illinios, Linley E. Pearson of Indiana, David L. Armstrong of Kentucky, William J. Guste, Jr., of Louisiana, Frank J. Kelley of Michigan, Edward L. Pittman of Mississippi, William L. Webster of Missouri, Mike Greely of Montana, Brian McKay of Nevada, Irwin L. Kimmelman of New Jersey, Paul Bardacke of New Mexico, Lacy H. Thornburg of North Carolina, Nicholas J. Spaeth of North Dakota, Anthony Celebrezze of Ohio, Michael Turpén of Oklahoma, David Frohnmayer of Oregon, Dennis J. Roberts II of Rhode Island, T. Travis Medlock of South Carolina, Mark V. Meierhenry of South Dakota, W. J. Michael Cody of Tennessee, David L. Wilkinson of Utah, John J. Easton of Vermont, Kenneth 0. Eikenberry of Washington, Charlie Brown of West Virginia, Bronson C. La Follette of Wisconsin, and Archie G. McClintock of Wyoming; for the State of New York by Robert Abrams, Attorney General, Robert Hermann, Solicitor General, and R. Scott Greathead, First Assistant Attorney General; for the City of Chicago et al. by James D. Montgomery, Frederick A. 0. Schwarz, Jr., Barbara W. Mather, and Leonard Koemer; for the County of Suffolk, New York, by Mark D. Cohen; for the Interinsuranee Exchange of the Automobile Club of Southern California by James M. Fischer and Patrick Mesisca, Jr.; and for John Grado et al. by James S. Dittmar.
Per Curiam.
This is a private civil action brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), Pub. L. 91-452, Title IX, 84 Stat. 941, as amended, 18 U. S. C. §§ 1961-1968. Respondents’ complaint alleged that petitioner bank and several of its officers had fraudulently charged excessive interest rates on loans. The gist of the claim was that the bank had lied with regard to its prime rate and that the rate charged to respondents, which was pegged to the prime, was therefore too high. The complaint alleged that this scheme to defraud, which was carried on through the mails, violated 18 U. S. C. § 1962(c), in that the mailings constituted a pattern of racketeering activity by means of which petitioners conducted, or participated in the conduct of, the bank. The only injuries alleged were the excessive interest charges themselves.
The District Court dismissed on the ground that the complaint did not state a claim. 577.F. Supp. Ill (ND Ill. 1983). In its view, “to be cognizable under RICO [the injury] must be caused by a RICO violation and not simply by the commission of predicate offenses, such as acts of mail fraud. ” Id., at 114. The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed in relevant part, 747 F. 2d 384 (1984), rejecting various formulations of a requirement of a distinct RICO injury. We granted. certiorari, 469 U. S. 1157 (1984), to consider the question whether a claim under § 1964(c) requires that the plaintiff have suffered damages by reason of the defendant’s violation of § 1962 through the prescribed predicate offenses, or whether injury from those offenses alone is sufficient.
In their brief, and at oral argument, petitioners have argued primarily that respondents’ complaint does not adequately allege a violation of § 1962(c). In particular, they assert that respondents have not shown that the enterprise was “conducted” through a pattern of racketeering activity. Petitioners do not appear to have made this precise argument below, it was not addressed by the Court of Appeals, and it quite clearly is not included in the question presented by their petition for certiorari. Although we have the authority to waive it, this Court’s Rule 21.1(a) provides that only the question set forth in the petition for certiorari or fairly included therein will be considered, and we therefore do not consider petitioners’ late-blooming argument that the complaint failed to allege a violation of § 1962(c).
To the extent petitioners’ argument is a variation on the racketeering injury concept at issue in Sedima, S. P. R. L. v. Imrex Co., ante, p. 479, it is inconsistent with that decision. ' The submission that the injury must flow not from the predicate acts themselves but from the fact that they were performed as part of the conduct of an enterprise suffers from the same defects as the amorphous and unfounded restrictions on the RICO private action we rejected in that case.
With regard to the question presented, we view the decision of the court below as consistent with today’s opinion in Sedima, and it is accordingly
Affirmed.
[For dissenting opinion of Justice Marshall, see ante, p. 500.]
The question presented was:
“Whether a civil claim for treble damages under the Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act (‘RICO’) requires that the plaintiff suffer damages by reason of the defendant acquiring, maintaining control or an interest in, or conducting the affairs of an ‘enterprise’ through the commission of statutorily prescribed offenses as opposed to being damaged solely by reason of the defendant’s commission of such offenses.” Pet. for Cert. i.
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the ideological "direction" of the decision ("liberal", "conservative", or "unspecifiable"). Use "unspecifiable" if the issue does not lend itself to a liberal or conservative description (e.g., a boundary dispute between two states, real property, wills and estates), or because no convention exists as to which is the liberal side and which is the conservative side (e.g., the legislative veto). Specification of the ideological direction comports with conventional usage. In the context of issues pertaining to criminal procedure, civil rights, First Amendment, due process, privacy, and attorneys, consider liberal to be pro-person accused or convicted of crime, or denied a jury trial, pro-civil liberties or civil rights claimant, especially those exercising less protected civil rights (e.g., homosexuality), pro-child or juvenile, pro-indigent pro-Indian, pro-affirmative action, pro-neutrality in establishment clause cases, pro-female in abortion, pro-underdog, anti-slavery, incorporation of foreign territories anti-government in the context of due process, except for takings clause cases where a pro-government, anti-owner vote is considered liberal except in criminal forfeiture cases or those where the taking is pro-business violation of due process by exercising jurisdiction over nonresident, pro-attorney or governmental official in non-liability cases, pro-accountability and/or anti-corruption in campaign spending pro-privacy vis-a-vis the 1st Amendment where the privacy invaded is that of mental incompetents, pro-disclosure in Freedom of Information Act issues except for employment and student records. In the context of issues pertaining to unions and economic activity, consider liberal to be pro-union except in union antitrust where liberal = pro-competition, pro-government, anti-business anti-employer, pro-competition, pro-injured person, pro-indigent, pro-small business vis-a-vis large business pro-state/anti-business in state tax cases, pro-debtor, pro-bankrupt, pro-Indian, pro-environmental protection, pro-economic underdog pro-consumer, pro-accountability in governmental corruption, pro-original grantee, purchaser, or occupant in state and territorial land claims anti-union member or employee vis-a-vis union, anti-union in union antitrust, anti-union in union or closed shop, pro-trial in arbitration. In the context of issues pertaining to judicial power, consider liberal to be pro-exercise of judicial power, pro-judicial "activism", pro-judicial review of administrative action. In the context of issues pertaining to federalism, consider liberal to be pro-federal power, pro-executive power in executive/congressional disputes, anti-state. In the context of issues pertaining to federal taxation, consider liberal to be pro-United States and conservative pro-taxpayer. In miscellaneous, consider conservative the incorporation of foreign territories and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states or judcial authority vis-a-vis state or federal legislative authority, and consider liberal legislative veto. In interstate relations and private law issues, consider unspecifiable in all cases.