{"id":481,"date":"2019-01-10T15:16:43","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T19:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/?p=481"},"modified":"2019-01-10T15:16:43","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T19:16:43","slug":"federal-court-tosses-rico-claim-against-california-cannabis-growers-landlord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/2019\/01\/10\/federal-court-tosses-rico-claim-against-california-cannabis-growers-landlord\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Court Tosses RICO Claim Against California Cannabis Growers, Landlord"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On December 27, 2018, the Northern District of California dismissed a civil RICO claim brought against the owners and operators of a Sonoma County cannabis growing operation and the operation\u2019s landlord.\u00a0<i>See\u00a0<a title=\"Bokaie v. Green Earth Coffee LLC\" href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/federal\/district-courts\/california\/candce\/3:2018cv05244\/331234\/36\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bokaie v. Green Earth Coffee LLC<\/a><\/i>, 3:18-cv-05244-JST, 2018 WL 6813212 (N.D. Calif. Dec. 27, 2018). The lawsuit was filed by neighbors who alleged that the operation\u2019s \u201cskunk-like stench\u201d interfered with the enjoyment of their property and drove down their property values. The\u00a0<i>Bokaie<\/i>\u00a0court found that such alleged harms did not constitute a \u201cRICO injury,\u201d and thus dismissed plaintiffs\u2019 claim (albeit without prejudice, allowing 30 days to amend).<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<i>Bokaie<\/i>\u00a0case is part of a growing trend of RICO lawsuits filed in legalized states\u2014to date, roughly a dozen have been filed in California, Colorado, Massachusetts and Oregon\u2014that seek to exploit the tension between state law and the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). RICO defines \u201cracketeering activity\u201d to include CSA violations, and a civil lawsuit can proceed upon allegations that an enterprise\u2019s pattern of racketeering activity caused damage to the plaintiffs\u2019 business or property. 18 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a7 1961(1), 1962(c), 1964(c). RICO\u2019s civil remedy provision awards prevailing plaintiffs triple damages and attorneys\u2019 fees,\u00a0<i>id<\/i>. \u00a7 1964(c), thus giving \u201cnot in my backyard\u201d plaintiffs and their attorneys a powerful tool against their neighbors. By alleging that the smell of cannabis interferes with the enjoyment of their property and drives down their property value, plaintiffs in these cases are effectively elevating common law nuisance claims into federal RICO lawsuits.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/alerts\/federal_court_california_dismisses_rico_claim_cannabis_growing_operation_0119.html\">Read the full Duane Morris <em>Alert<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On December 27, 2018, the Northern District of California dismissed a civil RICO claim brought against the owners and operators of a Sonoma County cannabis growing operation and the operation\u2019s landlord.\u00a0See\u00a0Bokaie v. Green Earth Coffee LLC, 3:18-cv-05244-JST, 2018 WL 6813212 (N.D. Calif. Dec. 27, 2018). The lawsuit was filed by neighbors who alleged that the &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/2019\/01\/10\/federal-court-tosses-rico-claim-against-california-cannabis-growers-landlord\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Federal Court Tosses RICO Claim Against California Cannabis Growers, Landlord&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[130,63,398,24,396,397,399],"ppma_author":[714],"class_list":["post-481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-california","tag-cannabis","tag-cannabis-growing","tag-controlled-substances-act","tag-david-mctaggart","tag-nimby","tag-rico"],"authors":[{"term_id":714,"user_id":6,"is_guest":0,"slug":"duanemorris3","display_name":"Duane Morris","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/843ff6e7a8fe5fc92109b47a45f34b6cf0ea499e6e788db23456c838b0ae6747?s=96&d=blank&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}