Supreme Court Report

Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →

CMB Monaco, fka Compagnie Monegasque de Banque v. Vitaly Ivanovich Smagin, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 21-55537 · judgment June 10, 2022


Decided · June 22, 2023
Pre-decision estimate: 6% cert probability (95% interval 4%–8%)

Before the decision, modestly above the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Ninth Circuit decision below, a circuit split argued in the petition, and a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition).

Question presented

Consolidated with 22-381. In RJR Nabisco, Inc. v. European Community, 579 U.S. 325 (2016), this Court held that a plaintiff proceeding under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO"), 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq., must plead and prove a "domestic" injury to maintain a claim in U.S. court. Following RJR Nabisco, the courts of appeals have split on the issue of where a foreign plaintiff suffers its injury to its intangible property for purposes of the domestic-injury inquiry. On one hand, the Seventh Circuit correctly holds that the foreign plaintiff suffers its injury abroad. On the other, the court below and Third Circuit have adopted an open-ended balancing test to determine the location of the plaintiff’s injury. Incorrectly applying that standardless test in reference to defendants' conduct, the Ninth Circuit held below that the plaintiff had suffered a domestic injury, even though he is a foreign resident with no alleged connection to the U.S. The question presented therefore is: Whether a foreign plaintiff with no alleged connection to the United States may nevertheless allege a "domestic" injury under RJR Nabisco sufficient to maintain a RICO action based only on injury to intangible property.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Michael Carl Tu
Cooley LLP

For respondent
Alexander David Burch
Baker & McKenzie, LLP

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Related
Vide, 22-381

Argument & decision

Argued April 25, 2023 — Vincent Levy · Nicholas O. Kennedy. Audio and transcript

Decided June 22, 2023. Opinion by Sotomayor.

Proceedings

  1. Jul 24 2023
    Judgment issued.
  2. Jun 22 2023
    Judgment is AFFIRMED and case REMANDED. Sotomayor, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Roberts, C. J., and Kagan, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Jackson, JJ., joined. Alito, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Thomas, J., joined, and in which Gorsuch, J., joined as to Part I. VIDED.
  3. Apr 25 2023
    Argued. For petitioners: Vincent Levy, New York, N. Y. For Vitaly Ivanovich Smagin: Nicholas O. Kennedy, Dallas, Tex. VIDED.
  4. Mar 24 2023
    CIRCULATED
  5. Feb 08 2023
    Record requested from the U.S.C.A.-9th Circuit. VIDED.
  6. Feb 08 2023
    All records from the USCA-9th Circuit and USDC-Central Disrict of California are available on PACER. VIDED.
  7. Jan 31 2023
    SET FOR ARGUMENT on Tuesday, April 25, 2023. VIDED.
  8. Jan 13 2023
    Petition GRANTED. The petition for a writ of certiorari in No. 22-381 is GRANTED. The cases are consolidated, and a total of one hour is allotted for oral argument.
  9. Jan 13 2023
    Because the Court has consolidated these cases for briefing and oral argument, future filings and activity in the cases will now be reflected on the docket of No. 22-381. Subsequent filings in these cases must therefore be submitted through the electronic filing system in No. 22-381. Each document submitted in connection with one or more of these cases must include on its cover the case number and caption for each case in which the filing is intended to be submitted. Where a filing is submitted in fewer than all of the cases, the docket entry will reflect the case number(s) in which the filing is submitted; a document filed in all of the consolidated cases will be noted as “VIDED.”
  10. Jan 09 2023
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/13/2023.
  11. Dec 07 2022
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/6/2023.
  12. Dec 06 2022
    Reply of petitioner CMB Monaco filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
  13. Nov 23 2022
    Brief of respondent Vitaly Smagin in opposition filed. VIDED.
  14. Oct 20 2022
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due November 23, 2022)