John Muldoon v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc.
- Phyllis Hamilton
- 3:15-cv-02723
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 9
In John Muldoon v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Judge Hamilton dismissed Muldoon’s RICO claim against Dodgin with prejudice for insufficiently detailed fraud allegations.
John Muldoon’s RICO claim against David Dodgin was dismissed with prejudice; the order does not rule on Muldoon’s other claims or defendants.
What happened
In John Muldoon v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., John Muldoon alleged that defendants’ conduct related to injuries from his 2007 hip-replacement surgery. His third amended complaint included a claim under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act against David Dodgin.
Dodgin asked the court to dismiss that claim because Muldoon had not adequately alleged required RICO elements, including fraud-based acts. The court ruled that the complaint did not provide enough details about the alleged mail and wire fraud, such as when it occurred, who was involved, what was transmitted, or who received it.
The court granted Dodgin’s motion to dismiss, dismissed Muldoon’s RICO claim against Dodgin with prejudice, and denied Muldoon leave to amend. Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton concluded that Muldoon had repeatedly failed to fix the same pleading problems and that further amendment would be futile.
The detailed version
- John Muldoon v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. · No. 3:15-cv-02723
- Phyllis Hamilton
- Feb. 3, 2025
Background
John Muldoon filed this action in 2015 as a class action concerning alleged damages from his 2007 hip-replacement surgery. The class allegations were later removed from the second amended complaint. The third amended complaint asserted a RICO claim as its eighth cause of action against all defendants, including David Dodgin, who was involved in Muldoon’s surgery according to the opinion.
The court had previously dismissed Muldoon’s RICO claim against Dodgin and allowed him to amend by adding allegations about statutory standing and Dodgin’s specific role and actions in the alleged enterprise. Dodgin then moved to dismiss the RICO claim in the third amended complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), which tests whether a complaint states a legally sufficient claim.
Court’s Analysis
A civil RICO claim requires allegations of conduct involving an enterprise, a pattern of racketeering activity, and injury to the plaintiff’s business or property. Because Muldoon’s RICO claim was based on alleged fraud, the complaint also had to satisfy Rule 9(b). That rule requires fraud to be pleaded with particularity, including the time, place, manner, and participants in the alleged misconduct.
Muldoon argued that Dodgin committed mail fraud and wire fraud by submitting false claims to insurers and by using mail and electronic communications in the alleged scheme. The court found these allegations too general. The complaint did not identify when Dodgin allegedly submitted false claims, the people involved in the transmissions, the recipients, or the specific communications. Allegations referring collectively to “Defendants,” “hospitals,” “patients,” and unspecified insurance companies did not identify what Dodgin personally did or when he did it.
The court also found that allegations about a different serial number being recorded on an implant log did not provide details about any transmission of that log. Because the predicate-act allegations failed to meet Rule 9(b), the court did not address the other elements of the RICO claim.
Disposition
The court dismissed Muldoon’s RICO cause of action as asserted against Dodgin. It denied leave to amend because Muldoon had received multiple opportunities to correct the same defects, had not adequately done so, and the court concluded that further amendment would be futile. The court granted Dodgin’s motion to dismiss, and the RICO claim against Dodgin was dismissed with prejudice. Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton signed the order.
Read the full 9-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.