Klehr v. A. O. Smith Corp., 521 U.S. 179, 18 (1997)

Page:   Index   Previous  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  Next

196

KLEHR v. A. O. SMITH CORP.

Opinion of Scalia, J.

consensus of authority, we conclude that "fraudulent concealment" in the context of civil RICO embodies a "due diligence" requirement.

In their brief on the merits, petitioners have asked us to examine whether the Eighth Circuit properly applied the "due diligence" requirement to the evidentiary materials before it. That fact-based question, however, is beyond the scope of our writ; and for reasons similar to those discussed earlier, see supra, at 193, we shall not consider it.

The judgment of the Court of Appeals is

Affirmed.

Justice Scalia, with whom Justice Thomas joins, concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.

Twice this Term we have received full briefing and heard oral argument on the question of when a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) cause of action accrues; when we rise for our summer recess, the question will remain unanswered. We did not reach it in Grimmett v. Brown, 519 U. S. 233 (1997), because we dismissed the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted. And we do not reach it today for no particular reason except timidity—declining to say what the correct accrual rule is, but merely rejecting the only one of the four candidates 1 under which these petitioners could recover. We thus leave reduced but unresolved the well-known split in authority that prompted us to take this case. There will remain in effect, in some Circuits, one of the three remaining accrual rules— the one that their Courts of Appeals or District Courts have adopted; in the remaining Circuits litigants will have to

1 The Court's opinion could be read to suggest that there are only three different possible accrual rules—last predicate act, injury discovery, and injury and pattern discovery. See ante, at 185-186, 191-193. In fact, as is alluded to in its rejection of the Third Circuit's last predicate act rule, see ante, at 188-189, there is a fourth accrual rule—the Clayton Act "injury" rule.

Page:   Index   Previous  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007