Robert L. Randolph Cullom v. Hibernia National Bank, New Orleans, Louisiana, Hibernia National Bank in Lafayette (Formerly Southwest National Bank of Lafayette)

Summary

The Fifth Circuit held that an employee who was constructively discharged for refusing to participate in an alleged RICO scheme lacked standing to seek treble damages under 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c). The court concluded that the employee's discharge did not proximately flow from the alleged predicate acts of mail and securities fraud and affirmed dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6).

Holdings

1. An employee who refuses to participate in an activity allegedly violative of RICO and is constructively discharged for that refusal lacks standing to sue for treble damages under § 1964(c).
2. Cullom failed to allege the causal nexus required by § 1964(c) because neither his injury nor the bank's decision to discharge him resulted from the alleged mail and securities fraud predicate acts.

Questions Presented

1. Whether an employee who refuses to participate in an activity allegedly violating RICO and is constructively discharged for that refusal suffers an injury 'by reason of' a RICO violation, giving him standing to seek treble damages under 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c).
2. Whether the alleged constructive-discharge injury flowed from the predicate acts of mail and securities fraud within the meaning of RICO's proximate-causation requirement.

Disposition

affirmed