Agency Holding Corp. v. Malley-Duff & Associates, Inc.

Malley-Duff & Associates, Inc. (Malley-Duff) (plaintiff) sued Agency Holding Corporation and another entity (defendants) in federal district court, alleging that Agency Holding and the other entity had violated the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Under RICO, it was unlawful to engage in a criminal enterprise or a pattern of racketeering activity. RICO focused on the connected nature of almost any criminal activity, from mail fraud to arson to political corruption. RICO was a new type of law with no common-law predecessor. RICO had both criminal and civil enforcement provisions, and its civil provisions were patterned after the federal Clayton Act, an antitrust statute with a four-year statute of limitations. However, RICO did not include a statute of limitations for actions brought under it. A default federal statute provided a five-year time limit for federal criminal actions, which included criminal actions under RICO, but no similar default statute existed for federal civil actions. The district court applied a two-year statute of limitations to Malley-Duff’s RICO claims and dismissed them as untimely. The court of appeals applied a longer statute of limitations. Under this longer period, Malley-Duff’s RICO claims were timely, so the court of appeals reversed the dismissal. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.