Opinion ID: 6333579
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: RICO Complaint

Text: But rather than resolving the dispute in state court, Lyle, as the attorney for the Lyle Law Firm, removed the case to federal court asserting a class-action claim on behalf of the firm and against the Hospital, Midland, and the Jackson Law Firm (Appellees) 3 Appellate Case: 21-2035 Document: 010110673869 Date Filed: 04/21/2022 Page: 4 under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). According to the complaint, Appellees, described collectively as the “‘Enterprise,’” were “engaged in a widespread pattern of illegal activity,” which “consists of systemic extortion of excessive reimbursements from payments made on behalf of third-party wrongdoers, typically by way of insurance liability payment to injured parties, their[] agents and representatives.” Aplt. App. at 16. “Specifically, the Enterprise routinely [makes] demands for lien payments which exceed the amounts that can be validly claimed under New Mexico law because, on information and belief, the Enterprise does not honor New Mexico’s Doctrine of Equitable Subrogation.” Id. “The Enterprise does this to compel the persons [it] threaten[s] to pay excess amounts as ‘lien reimbursements’ or face meritless litigation,” which “constitutes extortion as a matter of law.” Id. at 18. The complaint further alleged that the Lyle Law Firm had “suffered financial loss as a result” of the Hospital’s refusal to accept a proposed reduction of Parker’s debt, id., when in fact it had already been paid its attorneys’ fees. Lyle then used this sham injury as the basis to expand the claim into a class action brought by the firm “on behalf of itself and the putative class which consists of similarly situated persons . . . who were coerced by the Enterprise into making lien reimbursement payments . . . which did not include appropriate reductions required under the New Mexico Equitable Subrogation Doctrine.” Id. at 19 (internal quotation marks omitted).