RICO imposes liability both on person at and below a racketeering enterprise's managerial or supervisory level

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Both Congress and the Indiana General Assembly have passed statutes called "RICO Acts" to combat "racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations." There is a conflict between opinions of the Court of Appeals as to whether liability under the Indiana RICO Act extends only to persons who direct racketeering activity (the rule under the Federal RICO Act) or extends below the managerial or supervisory level to a racketeering enterprise’s "foot soldiers" as well. Because the Indiana Act uses language significantly broader than that of the Federal Act, we conclude that it imposes RICO liability both on persons at and below a racketeering enterprise’s managerial or supervisory level.

Conclusion (slip op. at 2): We vacate the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants Baugher, Florida Underwriting, and Jones with respect to the plaintiffs’ Indiana RICO Act allegations. In all other respects, we summarily affirm the opinion of the Court of Appeals. We remand to the trial court for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion and that of the Court of Appeals.

Key Analysis (slip op. at 6): The most important difference between the language of these two statutes is that the Federal Act imposes liability on a person who "conduct[s] or participate[s] . . . in the conduct of such enterprise’s affairs" while the Indiana Act imposes liability on a person who "conducts or otherwise participates in the activities of that enterprise." . . . by not using "conduct" as a noun, the Legislature wrote the Indiana Act to mean . . . a statute that extends liability beyond just those who conduct the racketeering enterprise’s affairs to reach those who assist the enterprise below the managerial or supervisory level.

Shepard, C.J., and Boehm, J., concurring.

Dickson, J., dissenting with separate opinion in which Rucker, J., concurs: The Court today construes Indiana’s RICO Act to impose liability beyond those who substantially participate in the enterprise, to persons below the managerial or supervisory level, based upon linguistic variation between the Federal RICO statute and the Indiana Act. I disagree, finding the modest language differences to be insignificant and inconclusive. . .