Standing and extraterritorial RICO application

In Brown v. Offshore Specialty Fabricators, the Court affirmed dismissal of a putative RICO class action involving workers on offshore oil and gas projects.  The Court agreed that the alleged violations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (“OCSLA”) occurred outside the United States and were not actionable, op. at 4-12, a conclusion that turned on the specific language of OCSLA rather than the issue of RICO’s extraterritorial reach recently addressed by the Supreme Court in Morrison v. National Australian Bank.  The Court went on to address standing under OCSLA, finding fatal problems with the failure of the remaining plaintiffs to have satisfied statutory notice requirements, or to allege a plan to obtain future employment as required by the statute’s focus on future injuries.  Op. at 12, 14.  On the issue of standing when several plaintiffs are involved, the Court reminded: “Because no plaintiff gave the type of notice required by the OCSLA, we need not reach the plaintiffs’ argument that notice by one plaintiff can serve as notice for all.”  Op. at 12.