Krantz v. Schlesinger

683 F. Supp. 32, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13435, 1987 WL 45194
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedNovember 16, 1987
DocketNo. CV-86-1637
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 683 F. Supp. 32 (Krantz v. Schlesinger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Krantz v. Schlesinger, 683 F. Supp. 32, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13435, 1987 WL 45194 (E.D.N.Y. 1987).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

WEINSTEIN, Chief Judge:

Plaintiffs, subscribers to an agreement to buy apartment units in the Mendocino Green Complex, brought suit against the sponsor of the offering plan to convert the complex to a condominium development. They allege violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-68 (RICO) predicated upon alleged commission of mail fraud incident to two schemes by defendants to abandon the plan. Fraud [33]*33and breach of contract under state law are also alleged. The schemes to defraud were allegedly directed against plaintiffs and the New York State Attorney General.

Defendants made a motion to dismiss, and plaintiffs were given leave to amend the complaint. In March of this year, defendant’s motion to dismiss the amended complaint was denied. Also denied was defendant’s application for certification of an order allowing an interlocutory appeal.

Defendants now renew their motion to dismiss the amended complaint. Fed.R. Civ.P. 12(b), (h). For reasons stated below, plaintiffs’ federal claim must be dismissed for failure to adequately plead the continuing criminal enterprise requirement of RICO, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961(4), 1962, and for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

I. FACTS

Plaintiffs’ civil RICO claim arises from an agreement with defendants Richard Schlesinger, doing business as Wags Realty, a sole proprietorship; Quest-Co. Ltd., a corporation and licensed real estate broker; and Baldwin Townhouse Company, a general partnership including Richard Schlesinger. Defendants are referred to collectively as the “sponsor” of the offering plan.

In March, 1986, plaintiffs executed an agreement with defendants to buy an apartment in the Mendocino Green Complex, which was then owned by Baldwin Townhouse. Quest-Co. Ltd. was the selling agent for the units. The purchase agreement contained the terms of the condominium offering plan. It provided for certain situations under which the plan could be abandoned, including the “existence of a defect in title which cannot be cured except by litigation or otherwise at a cost to the sponsor of less than $50,000

Later that month, the sponsor filed an amendment to the plan, declaring it effective. After having difficulty obtaining approval from the Nassau County Planning Commission for the subdivision of the complex into separate tax units, the sponsor submitted a form to the New York State Attorney General’s office abandoning the plan. The stated reason for abandonment was the cost of compliance with subdivision requirements of the Nassau County Planning Commission.

In March, 1986, the Attorney General rescinded the sponsor’s attempted abandonment, finding that the sponsor had failed to substantiate the basis for abandonment. Subsequent to the filing of the amended complaint in this action, the Attorney General conducted a more thorough investigation, finding that defendant’s conduct constituted a fraud on the purchasers and the Attorney General.

The majority of aggrieved purchasers have settled with defendants, allowing the sponsor to convert the complex into a cooperative. Annunziata v. Schlesinger, No. 86-3511 (Sup.Ct., Nassau Cty., Sept. 16, 1986). Plaintiffs have refused to participate in this settlement.

The amended complaint alleges that defendants, individually and collectively, are enterprises within the meaning of RICO, 18 U.S.C. § 1961(4), and that they have knowingly and wilfully participated in the affairs of these enterprises. The alleged pattern of racketeering activity consists of schemes to abandon the offering plan so that a new plan could be submitted later at a higher price, of defrauding prospective buyers, including plaintiffs, and of defrauding the Attorney General. The sponsor purportedly used the requirements imposed by the Nassau County Planning Commission as a way to rescind its legal obligations under the plan, misrepresenting, through fraudulent mailings, what compliance with the requirements would entail.

II. CONTINUING ENTERPRISE REQUIREMENT

In Sedima, S.P.R.L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U.S. 479, 105 S.Ct. 3275, 87 L.Ed.2d 346 (1985), the Supreme Court held that a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c) requires “(1) conduct (2) of an enterprise (3) through a pattern (4) of racketeering activity.” Id. at 496,105 S.Ct. at 3285. In a footnote elaborating on the pattern element, the court [34]*34emphasized the necessity of a continuing relationship. It wrote:

... the definition of a “pattern of racketeering activity” differs from the other provisions in § 1961 in that it states that a pattern “requires at least two acts of racketeering activity” § 1961(5) (emphasis added) ... As the Senate Report explained: ... The infiltration of legitimate business normally requires more than “one racketeering activity and the threat of continuing activity to be effective. It is this factor of continuity plus relationship which combines to produce a pattern.” (Senate Rep. No. 91-617, p. 158 (1969) (emphasis added).

Sedima, 473 U.S. at 496, n. 14, 105 S.Ct. at 3285 n. 14.

Each circuit has since considered the question of standards for pleading a valid RICO claim, attempting to implement Sedi-ma’s directive to create a standard for a pattern based on “continuity plus relationship.” This has been difficult, in light of the fact that Sedima suggested that while narrowing the scope of RICO was the job of Congress, there are dangers in the divergence of RICO from its original intent due to the increasing breadth of predicate offenses. Id. at 500, 105 S.Ct. at 3287-88.

One circuit has held that if predicate acts are all committed in furtherance of a single scheme, there is insufficient continuity to meet the pattern requirement. Superior Oil Co. v. Fulmer, 785 F.2d 252, 257 (8th Cir.1986.) In another the predicate acts do not need to occur in different criminal episodes or schemes. Bank of America v. Touche Ross & Co., 782 F.2d 966, 971 (11th Cir.1986).

Several circuits have taken a middle ground. In Morgan v. Bank of Waukegan, 804 F.2d 970, 975 (7th Cir.1986), the court stresses that the pattern requirement is a standard, not a rule, holding that “... [rjelevant factors include the number and variety of predicate acts and the length of time over which they were committed, the number of victims, the presence of separate schemes and the occurrence of distinct injuries ...” Id. at 975-76. In Morgan,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
683 F. Supp. 32, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13435, 1987 WL 45194, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/krantz-v-schlesinger-nyed-1987.