Thanh Tam Nguyen and MDA LLC v. Clarence William Ramsey III; Shyrock MCA Holding, LLC; Calhoun Realty Company d/b/a Calhoun Companies; Manoj Moorjani; and Brent Joseph Johnson

Summary

The United States District Court for the District of Minnesota grants in part and denies in part the Shyrock Defendants’ motion to dismiss claims arising from the sale of Mill City Anesthesia LLC. The court holds that plaintiffs plausibly pleaded a civil RICO claim with particularity and that supplemental jurisdiction exists over the state-law claims. It dismisses any standalone civil wire-fraud claim with prejudice because the Eighth Circuit does not recognize civil wire fraud as an independent cause of action.

Holdings

1. The Complaint plausibly alleged a civil RICO claim against the Shyrock Defendants and sufficiently pleaded the conduct, enterprise, pattern, racketeering-activity, and interstate-commerce elements at the motion-to-dismiss stage.
2. Plaintiffs pleaded the alleged wire-fraud predicate acts with sufficient particularity under Rule 9(b).
3. Plaintiffs did not plausibly allege closed-ended continuity because the alleged predicate acts occurred over approximately four to five months.
4. The standalone civil wire-fraud claim was dismissed with prejudice because § 1343 does not confer a private cause of action.
5. The court exercised supplemental jurisdiction over the state-law claims because the RICO claim was not dismissed.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Plaintiffs plausibly pleaded a civil RICO claim, including conduct, enterprise, pattern of racketeering activity, predicate wire-fraud acts, and an interstate-commerce nexus.
2. Whether Plaintiffs pleaded the alleged RICO predicate acts of wire fraud with the particularity required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b).
3. Whether 18 U.S.C. § 1343 provides a private cause of action for standalone civil wire fraud.
4. Whether the court should exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state-law claims after denying dismissal of the RICO claim.

Disposition

other