Dickinson Wright Attorneys Successfully Defend Client Against RICO Claim

Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that Attorneys Kathy Lang (Member, Detroit), Michelle Alamo (Member, Detroit), and Carmen Dorris (Associate, Detroit) successfully defended Accident Fund Insurance Company of America (AFICA) against a Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (“RICO”) Claim brought by a workers compensation claimant’s live-in girlfriend who was denied reimbursement for 24-hour attendant care services.

The plaintiffs filed their RICO claim in the name of the live-in girlfriend, thus raising the issue of whether a non-professional, unlicensed, non-family member attendant care service provider, such as a live-in girlfriend, has standing to maintain a claim under RICO when the injured worker does not have standing.

On January 23, 2017, Judge Arthur J. Tarnow granted AFICA’s motion to dismiss for lack of standing finding that the non-professional, unlicensed attendant care provider girlfriend had neither a legal nor contractual right to reimbursement and therefore, lacked standing to maintain a RICO claim. Along with the RICO claim, the court dismissed the plaintiff’s claim under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act and for false imprisonment and entered Judgment on all claims in favor of AFICA. The team hopes that the court’s ruling on this novel issue will deter similar claims in the future.

Other members of the team representing AFICA were Joseph Fink (Member, Lansing) and Jeffery Stuckey (Member, Lansing).