The Supreme Court appears split on whether truck drivers who say they lost their jobs can sue manufacturers of CBD hemp oil under a federal law aimed at combating organized crime.
The Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act allows businesses and property damaged by criminal enterprises to sue for triple damages and recover attorney's fees, Justice Clarence Thomas said. questioned whether the loss of income due to layoffs constituted a business loss.
Douglas Horne argues that this is true. In 2015, he took the company's CBD hemp oil, Dixie He sued Medical Marijuana Inc. and Dixie Holdings LLC for the same reason.
Horn claims he never would have taken the product if he knew it contained THC and everything he read said it didn't.
However, the maker of Dixie X says RICO does not allow compensation for damages caused by personal injury.
Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson had difficulty understanding why the company would claim there had been personal injury.
Nothing happened to Horne as a result of taking the medication, she said. She then accused the company's attorney, Lisa Blatt, of bringing personal injury claims into the case.
Even Horne's lawyer, Esha Anand, said she didn't think consuming THC was important to her client's case. If the product had been found in Mr. Horne's locker at work and he had been fired because of it, they would have brought in the same RICO suit, she said.
Blatt, who is the presiding judge and appellate judge at Williams & Connolly, said siding with Horn would cannibalize tort law and turn every slip and fall personal injury case into a RICO lawsuit. He said it would happen.
It was an argument that resonated with Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He said lawsuits over mislabeled products could easily become RICO lawsuits.
The case is Medical Marijuana, Inc. v. Horn, United States, No. 23-365, oral argument 10/15/24.
