Opinion ID: 76990
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Injury to Business or Property Interest Under RICO

Text: 29 As indicated above, RICO's civil-suit provision states that [a]ny person injured in his business or property by reason of RICO's substantive provisions has the right to recover threefold the damages he sustains.... 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c). The terms `business or property' are, of course, words of limitation which preclude [certain forms of] recovery. Doe v. Roe, 958 F.2d 763, 767 (7th Cir.1992). However, RICO is to be liberally construed. Sedima, 473 U.S. at 497-98, 105 S.Ct. at 3285-86 . Accordingly, we must determine whether the plaintiffs have a business or property interest that could be injured under RICO. We need not reach whether plaintiffs have a property interest because plaintiffs clearly have alleged a business interest affected by Mohawk's alleged RICO violations. 30 Indeed, this case is similar to the Ninth Circuit's Mendoza decision, where legally documented agricultural workers sued fruit growers under RICO alleging that the growers depressed wages by hiring illegal workers. In Mendoza, the defendant claimed that the employees would have to show a `property right' in the lost wages[ ] by showing that they were promised or contracted for higher wages. Mendoza, 301 F.3d at 1168 n. 4. The Ninth Circuit concluded that this argument was misplaced, pointing out that the plaintiffs' claim did not implicate procedural due process. Id. Rather, the Ninth Circuit concluded that what is required is precisely what the employees allege here: a legal entitlement to business relations unhampered by schemes prohibited by the RICO predicate statutes. Id. (citations omitted). Given that a relationship clearly exists between plaintiff workers and their employer, Mohawk, we conclude that a similar business interest exists in this case, and that the employees' alleged injury to their business interests satisfies the business-interest requirement. Consequently, the plaintiffs have alleged a sufficient injury to a business interest to pursue their RICO claims. 31