Injuries to Business or Property - RICO § 1964(c)
As I noted in my last post, a civil RICO plaintiff must plead and prove direct injury "by reason of" the defendant’s RICO violation. But pleading and proving direct causation may not be enough to save a plaintiff’s claim from dismissal. Section 1964(c) limits injuries to a plaintiff’s “business or property”:
Any person injured in his business or property by reason of a violation of section 1962 of this chapter may sue therefore . . . and shall recover threefold the damages he sustains and the cost of the suit, including a reasonable attorney’s fee . . . . (Emphasis added).
So, not all injuries are provided a remedy under the RICO Act. Most notably personal injuries are not compensable under RICO. As with RICO’s direct injury requirement, Courts have used the "business or property" standard as a means of promptly dismissing claims that they consider beyond the Act’s intended scope. The clear message is – Don’t bring a RICO claim in order to gain leverage in an ordinary tort case.