Allstate Insurance v. Advanced Health Professionals, P.C.

256 F.R.D. 49, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101799
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedDecember 17, 2008
DocketCivil No. 3:08cv63 (JBA)
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 256 F.R.D. 49 (Allstate Insurance v. Advanced Health Professionals, P.C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allstate Insurance v. Advanced Health Professionals, P.C., 256 F.R.D. 49, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101799 (D. Conn. 2008).

Opinion

RULING ON DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS

JANET BOND ARTERTON, District Judge.

I. Background

Plaintiffs Allstate Insurance Company and Allstate Indemnity Company (collectively, “Allstate” or “Plaintiffs”) brought this action on January 14, 2008 against Advanced Health Professionals, P.C. (“AHP”) as well as its related management company and its individual owners, operators and employees, alleging that they violated state and federal laws by engaging in a scheme to defraud Allstate by creating and submitting false, fraudulent and inflated medical invoices through the United States Mail for reimbursement from Místate. In particular, Plaintiffs bring claims under the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1962 (“RICO”), the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, Conn. Gen.Stat. § 42-110(b) (“CUTPA”), and the Connecticut Health Insurance Fraud Act, Conn. Gen.Stat. § 53M42 (“CHIFA”), and also allege common-law fraud. (Amended Complaint [Doc. 66] (“Am.Compl.”) at ¶¶ 974-1022.) Plaintiffs seek injunctive relief as well as compensatory, punitive and statutory damages. (Id at pp. 140-42.)

Defendants have moved to dismiss Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) and 9(b), [51]*51arguing: (1) that as to Plaintiffs’ RICO and common law fraud claims, Plaintiffs have failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted because they have not pleaded false or fraudulent statements; (2) that as to each of Plaintiffs’ claims, Plaintiffs have not pleaded fraud with the particularity required by Rule 9(b); (3) that to the extent Plaintiffs’ RICO claims are based on invoices submitted by Defendants before January 14, 2004, and to the extent Plaintiffs’ state-law claims are based on invoices submitted by Defendants before January 14, 2005, those claims are barred by applicable statutes of limitations; (4) that Plaintiffs’ innocent victim enterprise RICO claim (Count II) fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted because Defendants did not participate in the operation or management of Allstate’s affairs; and (5) that Plaintiffs’ mail-fraud RICO claim (Count I) fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted because it violates the “separateness” requirement of § 1962(c). (See Defs.’ Mem. Supp. Mot. Dismiss [Doe. 68] (“Defs.’ Mem. Supp.”).)

For the reasons that follow, the Court grants Defendants’ motion to dismiss Allstate’s complaint under Rule 9(b). Because it grants Defendants’ motion without giving Allstate leave to amend its complaint, the Court does not address Defendants’ arguments that Allstate’s complaint should be dismissed for any of the following grounds: for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted because it does not plead false or fraudulent statements; as untimely given the applicable statutes of limitations; for failure to plead facts sufficient to find that Defendants participated in the operation or management of Allstate’s affairs; or for violation of the “separateness” requirement in § 1962(c).

II. Sufficiency of the Complaint Under Rule 9(b)

A. Standards

In ruling on a motion to dismiss, the Court “must accept as true all factual statements alleged in the complaint and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the non-moving party.” McCarthy v. Dun & Bradstreet Corp., 482 F.3d 184, 191 (2d Cir.2007). Although under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) a complaint need only contain “ ‘a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief,’ in order to ‘give the defendant fair notice of what the ... claim is and the grounds upon which it rests,’ ” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1965, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (citations omitted), a complaint alleging fraud must contain a greater level of factual specificity than that required under the requirements of Rule 8(a)(2) and Twombly. Under Rule 9(b), “[i]n alleging fraud or mistake, a party must state with particularity the circumstances constituting fraud or mistake. Malice, intent, knowledge, and other conditions of a person’s mind may be alleged generally.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 9(b). To survive a motion to dismiss under Rule 9(b), “the complaint must: (1) specify the statements that the plaintiff contends were fraudulent, (2) identify the speaker, (3) state where and when the statements were made, and (4) explain why the statements were fraudulent.’ ” Lerner v. Fleet Bank, N.A., 459 F.3d 273, 290 (2d Cir.2006) (quoting Mills v. Polar Molecular Corp., 12 F.3d 1170, 1176 (2d Cir.1993)). “Allegations that are conelusory or unsupported by factual assertions are insufficient” to satisfy Rule 9(b). ATSI Commc’ns, Inc. v. Shaar Fund, Ltd., 493 F.3d 87, 99 (2d Cir.2007); see also Knoll v. Schectman, 275 Fed.Appx. 50, 51 (2d Cir. 2008) (affirming dismissal under Rule 9(b) because complaint contained only “the kind of conelusory allegations that Rule 9(b) is meant to dissuade”).

While the “conditions of a person’s mind may be alleged generally,” Fed.R.Civ.P. 9(b), courts “must not mistake the relaxation of Rule 9(b)’s specificity requirement regarding condition of mind for a ‘license to base claims of fraud on speculation and conelusory allegations,’ ” Acito v. IMC-ERA Group, Inc., 47 F.3d 47, 52 (2d Cir. 1995) (citations omitted). Therefore, “it is well established that a plaintiff must still allege facts that give rise to a strong inference of fraudulent intent,” Stevelman v. Alias Research Inc., 174 F.3d 79, 84 (2d Cir. 1999) (quotations omitted, emphasis in original), either “(a) by alleging facts to show [52]*52that defendants had both motive and opportunity to commit fraud, or (b) by alleging facts that constitute strong circumstantial evidence of conscious misbehavior or recklessness,” Lerner, 459 F.3d at 290-91.

Allstate alleges that Defendants “engaged in a scheme to defraud Allstate” by submitting fraudulent requests for payment to Allstate. (See Am. Compl. at ¶ 1) (“This is a case about [Defendants] who working in concert engaged in a scheme to defraud Allstate”); id. at ¶ 5 (“In each claim detailed throughout this Complaint, an Allstate automobile insurance contract was the platform upon which [D]efendants perpetrated their fraudulent scheme.”)1

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256 F.R.D. 49, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101799, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allstate-insurance-v-advanced-health-professionals-pc-ctd-2008.