The Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a plaintiff’s RICO claim, and thus found the district court lacked independent federal jurisdiction to compel arbitration of the dispute under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”). Specifically, the Ninth Circuit agreed with the district court that the plaintiff failed to properly allege any predicate acts for a cognizable RICO claim against the defendant. As that claim was the plaintiff’s only basis for federal jurisdiction, the court found it lacked jurisdiction to compel arbitration under the FAA, which requires a party so moving to demonstrate that the court has an independent basis for federal jurisdiction.

Estate of Clark v. Horwich, No. 12-17064 (9th Cir. Sept. 23, 2016).