Opinion ID: 3051440
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The County’s Claim Against Pacheco

Text: The County’s claim against Albert Pacheco, the former Executive Director of the Idaho Migrant Council, is founded on two specific factual allegations: first, that Pacheco directed his staff to assist undocumented immigrants in filing false applications for the County’s indigent medical assistance fund, which cost the County money; and second, that Pacheco directed his staff to assist undocumented immigrants in procuring public housing, and that those immigrants subsequently burdened the County’s public assistance and criminal justice systems. As we noted above, neither of these allegations supports a claim that the County was injured in its “property,” and so the claim against Pacheco was properly dismissed for that reason. The second allegation against Pacheco, that he assisted immigrants in securing housing, suffers from an additional flaw: lack of proximate causation. Here, as in Anza, the defendant’s alleged RICO violation (assisting undocumented immigrants in securing housing) is distinct from the cause of the plaintiff’s harm (increased demand placing a burden on Canyon County’s public assistance and criminal justice systems). Further, the considerations cited in Anza demonstrate that proximate cause is absent. See id. at 1997-98. The causal chain between the 2760 CANYON COUNTY v. SYNGENTA SEEDS RICO violation and the plaintiff’s harm is dubious for any number of reasons: for example, the immigrants might have secured public housing without Pacheco’s staff’s assistance, and the immigrants might have remained in the County even without being able to occupy public housing. It is even more attenuated to postulate that having the benefit of public housing made the immigrants more prone to commit crimes, require health care, or otherwise increase their use of County services. Given the speculative nature of the causal links between the alleged harm and Pacheco’s actions, a court attempting to identify the specific portion of the County’s financial loss caused by Pacheco’s actions would be sorely pressed to do so. Finally, to the extent that Pacheco’s actions were indeed unlawful, the most direct victim is the public housing authority itself; there is little need to allow the County to pursue this RICO claim in order to vindicate the laws. [18] Thus, we conclude that proximate causation is lacking as to this portion of the County’s claim against Pacheco.