Lydia Libertad v. Father Patrick Welch

A group of individuals and organizations representing women who have sought or will seek family planning services in Puerto Rico (“Appellants”) brought this action against certain individuals and organizations (“Appel-lees”) who oppose abortion and coordinate anti-abortion demonstrations at women’s health clinics in Puerto Rico. The Appellants appeal from the district court’s grant of summary judgment disposing of their claims brought under §§ 1962(c) and (d) of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq. (1984), and the “hindrance clause” of 42 *433 U.S.C. § 1985(3) (1981). 1 In granting summary judgment for Appellees, the district court ruled: 1) that Appellants’ claims brought under §§ 1962(c) and (d) of RICO failed because Appellants did not show either the existence of an enterprise or a pattern of racketeering activity; and 2) that Appellants’ claims brought under the “hindrance clause” of the “Ku Klux Klan Act,” 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3), failed because Appellants did not show “that the purpose of [Appellees’] alleged conspiracy was to prevent or hinder law enforcement officers from giving or securing to women their right to seek abortions.” For the following reasons, we affirm in part and reverse in part.

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Parties

Appellants initiated this action on behalf of women seeking reproductive health services and their health care providers. Among the named plaintiffs are two women using the pseudonyms “Lydia Libertad” and “Emilia Emancipación.” Both Libertad and Emanci-pación are Puerto Rico residents and have sought reproductive health services on the island. Another plaintiff, Rosa Cáceres, is the Clinic Administrator at the Women’s Metropolitan Clinic (“WMC”) in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, which provides a range of reproductive health services including abortion. WMC is owned in turn by plaintiff Oficinas Médicas. Plaintiff Mary Rivera is the Clinic Supervisor and Director of Counselling at the Clínica Gineco-Quirúrgica, (“Clínica”) which also provides reproductive health services including abortion. Plaintiffs Ana E. Gonzá-lez-Dávila (“González”) and Dr. Rafael E. Castro-De Jesús (“Castro”) are, respectively, the administrator and the medical director of plaintiff Ladies Medical Center (“LMC”), which also provides reproductive health services including abortion. The Grupo Pro Derechos Reproductivos, an abortion rights organization, is also a plaintiff.

Defendant Father Patrick Welch is the head of the anti-abortion rights organization Pro-Life Rescue Team (“PLRT”), also a named defendant. Defendants Donald Treshman and Reverend Ed Martin are, respectively, the National Director and the Executive Director of defendant Rescue America, a nationwide anti-abortion rights group based in Houston. Defendant Norman Wes-lin is the director of the defendant antiabortion rights group the Sacrificial Lambs of Christ (“SLC”). Defendant Carlos Sán-chez is a member of. the anti-abortion rights group Pro-Vida.

B. Events Leading to this Action

We present the facts here in the fight most favorable to the Appellants. See Maldonado-Denis v. Castillo-Rodríguez, 23 F.3d 576, 581 (1st Cir.1994) (when reviewing grant of summary judgment, record is examined in fight most favorable to nonmovant). Some or all of the Appellees staged protest demonstrations, which they refer to as “rescues,” at the plaintiff clinics on five occasions: September 26,1992, September 28,1992, Decemr ber 17, 1992, December 24, 1992, and January 8,1993. During each of the five protests, Appellees blockaded the clinics so that clinic personnel and patients could not enter. Each blockade was carried out in a similar manner. Typically, the- protests began before the clinics opened, with Appellees blocking access to the clinics and parking lots by physically obstructing the entrances, finking their arms tightly together and refusing to allow anyone to pass through. Outside, the protesters shouted slogans through megaphones to clinic personnel and patients, told patients that they were “murderers,” screamed insults at clinic personnel, and videotaped or photographed people as they attempted to enter and leave the clinics. The protesters also defaced the clinic property by affixing difficult-to-remove stickers depicting fetuses on the walls and entrances, and by scrawling graffiti on the clinic walls. During these blockades, fitter was strewn around clinic property and on the properties of surrounding businesses. In addition to effectively shutting down the clinics for all or *434 part of a day, these protests caused extensive and costly property damage to the clinics.

Appellee Welch and some of the minor children who protest with him have on occasion entered the clinics and intimidated or harassed patients and staff. On September 26, 1992, Welch invaded the LMC and pushed plaintiff González from the clinic entrance all the way through the waiting room to the back office, trapping her there for a number of hours. On September 28, 1992, Welch and a young girl entered one of the clinics and'remained in the waiting room, despite being told to leave by clinic staff. Patients with appointments would enter and then leave when they recognized Welch in the waiting room. Eventually, the police had to come and remove Welch and the young girl.

The record indicates that of the five protests at issue in this ease, the January 8, 1993 protest is the only one at which all of the Appellees, not just Welch and his followers, participated. The tactics employed on January 8 were considerably more aggressive. In addition to the above-mentioned blockade methods, Appellees also blocked clinic access by parking buses in front of clinic entrances and then refusing to move them when instructed to do so by the police. Appellees chain-locked a clinic entrance and then covered the lock with tape to prevent it from being pried open. One clinic supporter received a death threat from a protester. The clinic suffered considerable property damage as well; locks were filled with glue or gum, and gates were broken or otherwise damaged to prevent entry.

When the police attempted to arrest protesters on January 8, many protesters climbed under the motor vehicles to avoid arrest. Demonstrators also used other delay tactics, such as going limp when police arrested them, or lying down on the ground and locking arms, thus making it nearly impossible for the -officers to physically remove them from the clinic property. The evidence also indicates that some protesters actively resisted arrest by assaulting officers, or by flailing their arms to make the officer’s task more difficult and time-consuming. At one blockade, protesters poured acid in a police van in which several arrestees were held, necessitating that they be taken out of the van and further delaying the police.

The blockades demand that local law enforcement officials expend a significant amount of time and resources; between forty-five and sixty officers are usually deployed for each protest. Law enforcement officials testified that they are overwhelmed by the protesters’ tactics, that they are unable to either deter the blockades dr keep the clinics open during the blockades.

Some Appellees explained during depositions and at the hearing that one reason for these tactics is to “buy time” for the “un born” — ^ie., to delay their arrests, thereby prolonging the blockade of the clinic and delaying or preventing the clinic from resuming its business, particularly the performance of abortions.

C. Procedural History

On January 8, 1993, Appellants filed the instant action seeking a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, and a permanent injunction enjoining Appellees from using unlawful force, harassment, intimidation, and physical obstruction during their protests in front of Puerto Rico clinics. The district court denied the motion for a temporary restraining order, but held a hearing from February 4-9, 1993 on Appellants’ request for a preliminary injunction, during which extensive testimonial and documentary evidence was presented by both parties.

On February 9, 1993, during the hearing, Appellees’ counsel moved for dismissal of the complaint as to defendants SLC and Rescue America on the grounds of defective service of process. 2 The court examined the record and found that service on these defendants was defective because the summons failed to state the name of the person served. The court attempted to have the U.S. Marshal who had served the summons called into *435 court to testify, but the Marshal was unavailable. The court did not rule at that time on the defective service of process issue, but advised Appellants’ counsel to “inquire” about the problem. At the hearing’s close, the court ordered the parties to submit post-hearing briefs.

On November 1, 1993, the district court denied the preliminary injunction, ruling that Appellants had not demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits of their complaint, and that there existed no genuine dispute of material facts. The court converted the Appellees’ motions to dismiss into motions for summary judgment pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c), and ordered Appellants to show cause why summary judgment should not be entered. Accordingly, on December 30, 1993, Appellants filed their opposition to summary judgment accompanied by a statement alleging disputed material facts.

In March of 1994, responding to perceived threats by Appellees to begin another round of blockades and protests, Appellants filed a motion renewing their request for -injunctive relief. On May 3,1994, the court denied this request, and granted summary judgment in Appellees’ favor. Specifically, the court held 1) that Appellants’ claims brought under §§ 1962(c) and (d) of RICO failed because Appellants did not show either the existence of an enterprise or a pattern of racketeering activity; and 2) that Appellants’ claims brought under the “hindrance clause” of 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3) failed because Appellants did not show “that the purpose of [Appel-lees’] alleged conspiracy was to prevent or hinder law enforcement officers from giving or securing to women their right to seek abortions.” In the same order, the court dismissed the claims against Rescue America and SLC on the grounds of defective service of process.

II. PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

Summary judgment is appropriate when “there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, examining the entire record in the light most favorable to the nonmovant and indulging all reasonable inferences in that party’s favor. Maldonado-Denis, 23 F.3d at 581 (citations omitted); Pagano v. Frank, 983 F.2d 343, 348 (1st Cir.1993).

The movant must aver an “absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party’s case.” The burden then shifts to the non-movant, the party opposing summary judgment, to establish the existence of at least one fact issue which is both “genuine” and “material.” Maldonado-Denis, 23 F.3d at 581 (quoting Garside v. Osco Drug, Inc., 895 F.2d 46, 48 (1st Cir.1990) (other citations omitted)). A “genuine” issue is one that properly can be resolved only by a finder of fact because it may reasonably be resolved in favor of either party. Id. In other words, a genuine issue exists “if there is ‘sufficient evidence supporting the claimed factual dispute’ to require a choice between ‘the parties’ differing versions of the truth at trial.’ ” Id. (quoting Garside, 895 F.2d at 48). A “material” issue is one that might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

The nonmovant may not defeat a properly supported motion for summary judgment by relying upon mere allegations or evidence that is less than significantly probative. .Id. at 249-50, 106 S.Ct. at 2510-11. Rather, the nonmovant must present definite, competent evidence to rebut the motion. Maldonado-Denis, 23 F.3d at 581.

B. Standing

During oral argument, Appellees’ counsel raised for the first time in this ease the issue of Appellants’ standing to bring their claims. Because standing is a jurisdictional requirement which remains open to review at all stages of litigation, National Org. for Women v. Scheidler, — U.S.-, -, 114 S.Ct. 798, 802, 127 L.Ed.2d 99 (1994), we ordered the parties to submit supplemental briefs on the question.

*436 If a plaintiff lacks standing to bring a matter before a court, the court lacks jurisdiction to decide the merits of the underlying case. United States v. AVX Corp., 962 F.2d 108, 113 (1st Cir.1992). Thus, standing is a threshold issue, determining whether the court has the power to hear the case, and whether the putative plaintiff is entitled to have the court decide the merits of the case. Id. The inquiry into a plaintiffs standing “involves a blend of constitutional requirements and prudential considerations.” Valley Forge Christian Coll. v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, 454 U.S. 464, 471, 102 S.Ct. 752, 757-58, 70 L.Ed.2d 700 (1982).

There are three irreducible, minimum constitutional elements of standing. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 559-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 2136, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). First, a plaintiff must have suffered an “injury in fact”—an invasion of a legally-protected interest which is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical. Id. (footnote and internal quotations omitted). Second, there must be a causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of, such that the injury is fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant and not the result of the independent action of some third party not before the court. Id. Finally, it must be likely, and not merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision. Id.

To establish these elements of standing at the summary judgment stage of a proceeding, a plaintiff cannot rest on mere allegations, but must set forth by affidavit or other evidence specific facts which for purposes of the summary judgment motion will be taken to be true. Id. at 561-62, 112 S.Ct. at 2137.

In addition to these constitutionally required elements, the doctrine of standing also involves prudential considerations. Specifically, a court must determine 1) whether a plaintiff’s complaint falls within the zone of interests protected by the law invoked; 2) whether the plaintiff is asserting its own rights and interests, and not those of third parties; 3 and 3) that the plaintiff is not asking the court to adjudicate abstract questions . of wide public significance which amount to generalized grievances more appropriately addressed by the legislature. AVX Corp., 962 F.2d at 114 (citations omitted).

Finally, the Supreme Court has stated that a RICO plaintiff seeking to invoke a court’s jurisdiction must also establish that she has been injured in her business or property by the conduct allegedly constituting the RICO violation. Sedima, S.P.R.L. v. Imrex Co., Inc., 473 U.S. 479, 496, 105 S.Ct. 3275, 3285, 87 L.Ed.2d 346 (1985). With these principles in mind, we address whether the Appellants have standing as to each claim.

1. Appellants’ standing to bríng a RICO claim

Appellees first contend that Appellants lack standing to assert claims under §§ 1962(c) and (d) of RICO. Specifically, they argue that Libertad, Emancipación, and Grupo Pro Derechos Reproductivos (“Grupo Pro Derechos”) lack standing to bring a RICO claim because they suffered no injury to business or property. Second, Appellees argue that the three clinics and González, Cáceres, and Castro lack standing under RICO because they have failed to show that Appellees’ actions proximately caused them any injury.

a. Do Libertad and Emancipación have standing?

Libertad and Emancipación are women who have sought reproductive health services at the blockaded clinics. Libertad submitted a sworn statement in support of Appellants’ opposition to summary judgment, in which she described her experience at the WMC. She stated that the anti-abortion protesters intimidated her and made her angry; however, the protesters did not prevent her from attending her appointment at the clinic and obtaining an abortion.

*437 Emancipación testified at the summary-judgment hearing about her experience at the blockaded clinic. Unlike Libertad, Em-ancipación was intimidated enough by the Appellees’ blockade and protest tactics that she was deterred from entering the clinic for her appointment. Emancipación eventually returned to the clinic on a different day, however, and there is no indication that the delay caused her any physical harm.

Although we acknowledge that both women reasonably felt intimidated and harassed, neither woman suffered any injury to business or property, as is required for standing to sue under RICO. We therefore hold that Libertad and Emancipación do not have standing to maintain this RICO claim.

b. Does the Grupo Pro Derechos have standing?

Appellant Grupo Pro Derechos is an association of feminist and human rights organizations and individuals. The group’s mission is to defend women’s reproductive rights, and to work for quality women’s health services, sex education, and family planning. It allocates some of its resources to providing protection for women who patronize a blockaded clinic, and sues on its own behalf and on behalf of its members.

We have combed through the voluminous record and have been unable to find any evidence, or even any specific allegation, that the Grupo Pro Derechos has sustained any injury to business or property as a result of Appellees’ conduct. One of the organization’s members, Ms. Nancy Herzig Shannon, testified that while at one of the blockaded clinics, she received a death threat from a protester. She is not herself a named plaintiff, however, and she did not testify about any injury sustained by the group, such as expended resources, property damage, foregone business activities, or extortionate threats to its general membership. While the conduct of the protesters, lawful and unlawful, certainly conflicts with the group’s mission and renders their objectives more difficult to achieve, this by itself does not give rise to an injury to the group’s business or property interests. We therefore hold that the Grupo Pro Derechos does not have standing to maintain this RICO cause of action. 4

c. Do the remaining Appellants have standing?

Appellees claim that the remaining Appellants, the three clinics and their directors or administrators, lack standing to bring the RICO claim because they have failed to show that Appellees’ acts proximately caused them injury. 5 Even a cursory review of the record, particularly of the testimony adduced at thé summary judgment *438 hearing, belies this argument. The record is replete with evidence of the extensive property damage caused by Appellees’ blockades at the clinics: broken locks, damaged gates, vandalism, strewn litter on the grounds, to list examples. Appellee Welch and his followers also did damage inside the clinics, ripping out electrical sockets and jamming door locks. The blockades also delayed or prevented the climes from conducting business on those days. We therefore find that Appellants have sufficiently shown injury to business or property, and that this injury was proximately- caused by Appellees.

As to the third, “redressibility” element of standing, Appellants seek, among other things, declaratory and injunctive relief from the Appellees’ blockade activities — the same activities that caused their injury. This satisfies the “necessary causal connection between the injury alleged and the relief requested,” Vote Choice, Inc. v. DiStefano, 4 F.3d 26, 37 (1st Cir.1993), and we therefore find that the remaining Appellants have established the constitutional requirements necessary to confer standing.

Over and above these constitutional requisites, an analysis under the standing doctrine also embraces prudential concerns regarding the proper exercise of the court’s jurisdiction. Vote Choice, Inc., 4 F.3d at 37. The remaining Appellants satisfy these concerns. They are asserting their own rights and interests in conducting . their lawful business; their grievances are particularized and concrete; and the Appellants fall within the zone of interests contemplated by the explicit terms of the RICO statute — namely, “person[s] injured in [their] business or property” by an alleged pattern of racketeering activity. § 1964(c); see also, Sedima, S.P.R.L., 473 U.S. at 483, 497, 105 S.Ct. at 3278, 3285 (discussing the “far-reaching civil enforcement scheme” established by RICO, and rejecting restrictive readings of the statute’s intended scope).

Accordingly, we hold that the remaining Appellants — the clinics, Cáceres, Oficinas, Rivera, González, and Castro — all have standing to maintain this RICO claim. 6

2. Appellants’ standing to maintain a § 1985(3) claim

Appellees also contend that Appellants lack standing to maintain their claim under *439 the hindrance clause of 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3). 7 They argue that claims under the hindrance clause require a showing of 1) a class-based, invidiously discriminatory animus, and 2) the assertion, of a right protected against both private, as well as official, encroachment. 8 As we will discuss below, it is not entirely clear that Appellees- interpretation of the hindrance clause’s requirements is correct.

In any event, their interpretation is irrelevant to the issue of Appellants’ standing to maintain a § 1985(3) hindrance clause claim, because Appellees have once again confused the substantive elements of a cause of action with the threshold requirements necessary to confer standing. Appellants need not establish the elements of their cause of action in order to sue, only to succeed on the merits. In order to have standing to sue, Appellants must only establish that the constitutional and prudential considerations set forth above are satisfied.

It is clear that Appellants satisfy the requirements for standing. First, for reasons similar to those set forth above, the climes, Cáceres, Oficinas, Rivera, González, and Castro all have standing. They all have sufficiently established an injury-in-faet, either to their physical plant, their intangible property right to conduct lawful business, or both. They have also sufficiently established that the Appellees’ activities proximately caused their injuries, and that the relief they seek here will redress those injuries.

Although Libertad and Emancipa-ción did not allege or establish an injury to business or property sufficient to invoke the court’s jurisdiction on their RICO claim, they have established an injury-in-faet sufficient to maintain their § 1985(3) claim. The injury-in-fact requirement “serves to distinguish a person with a direct stake in the outcome of a litigation—even though small—from a person with a mere interest in a problem.” United States v. Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures (SCRAP), 412 U.S. 669, 690 n. 14, 93 S.Ct. 2405, 2417 n. 14, 37 L.Ed.2d 254 (1973) (citations omitted) (emphasis added). Therefore, plaintiffs such as Libertad and Emancipación need not establish a particularly damaging injury; they need only show that they were directly affected by the conduct complained of, and therefore have a personal stake in the suit. See also Adams v. Watson, 10 F.3d 915, 918 (1st Cir.1993) (noting that the contours of the injury-in-fact requirement are “generous,” and that even a slight injury suffices to confer standing). Both Libertad and Emancipa-ción had appointments at, and attempted to enter, one of the blockaded clinics. Both were, therefore, targets of the Appellees’ activities which form the basis for the alleged conspiracy in violation of § 1985(3), and both were affected by the alleged conspiracy to a degree sufficient to confer standing.

These Appellants also satisfy the prudential considerations involved in the standing inquiry. First, their claims do not fall outside the reasonable “zone of interests” of § 1985(3), which purports to afford remedial relief to all citizens. See Bray, — U.S. at -, 113 S.Ct. at 785 (Stevens, J., dissenting) (discussing the statute’s legislative history and intended scope). Second, although the Appellants claim to bring this suit in part on behalf of all women in Puerto Rico seeking family planning services, they are also suing on their own behalf and are therefore asserting their own concrete rights or interests. Finally, their claims are not abstract questions or generalized grievances, but instead are sufficiently particularized, such that they may appropriately be addressed by the judiciary. We therefore hold that Liber-tad, Emancipación, the clinics, Cáceres, Ofici-nas, ' Rivera, González, and Castro all have standing to maintain their claim under the hindrance clause of § 1985(3).

The Grupo Pro Derechos is the only Appellant whose standing under § 1985(3) is still in question. Because Grupo Pro Derec- *440 hos is an association whose standing is premised not on injury to itself but to others, we apply the test for “associational standing,” which is slightly different than the traditional standing inquiry. It is well settled that an association may sue on behalf of its members when 1) at least one of its members possesses standing to sue in his or her 'own right; 2) the interests that the suit seeks to vindicate are pertinent to the objectives for which the organization was formed; and 3) neither the claim asserted nor the relief demanded necessitates the personal participation of affected individuals. AVX Corp., 962 F.2d at 116 (citations omitted).

That Grupo Pro Derechos satisfies the second and third prongs of this analysis is not reasonably subject to debate. The interests of its suit here — to prevent unlawful blockade activities at abortion clinics in Puer-to Rico in . order to ensure access to family planning services for Puerto Rican women— is, not only pertinent to the group’s purpose, it is its primary purpose. Nor do the group’s claims here require that each of its members participate in the suit or in the relief demanded.

The only real issue is whether the Grupo Pro Derechos satisfies the first prong — that is, whether at least one of its members has standing to assert the claims in his or her own right. In the Appellants’ amended complaint, the group is described as an association of feminist and human rights organizations and individuals. Among its members is Nancy Herzig Shannon, who testified that she was harassed during one of the blockades, and received a death threat from a protester. This is certainly enough to confer standing on her. Because it is not contested that Herzig is a member of Grupo Pro Der-echos and she has standing on her own to sue, we hold that the Grupo Pro Derechos has associational standing to maintain the § 1985(3) claim.

C. Appellees’ claims of defective service of process

Appellants contend that the district court erroneously dismissed their claims against SLC and Rescue America due to defective service of process. Specifically, the court found that the service was defective because the summons failed to state the name of the person served. The court’s dismissal, claim the Appellants, was based on its incorrect assumption that Appellants had conceded the issue- of improper service, and was granted sua sponte without affording them an opportunity to defend the service.

In fact, claim the Appellants, all the defendants, including SLC and Rescue America, were personally served by U.S. Marshals, and return of service was filed with the district court. Rescúe America and SLC were both served through a proper agent as authorized by Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(h). For Rescue America, the U.S. Marshals served both Treshman, the group’s National Director, and Martin, the group’s Executive Director. For SLC, the Marshals served Weslin, the group’s national director.

We have held that “the root purpose underlying service of process is to ensure that a defendant receives fair notice of the suit and adequate opportunity to protect her interests.” Jardines Bacata, Ltd. v. Díaz-Márquez, 878 F.2d 1555, 1559 (1st Cir.1989). When an alleged defect in service is due to a minor, technical error, only actual prejudice to the defendant or evidence of a flagrant disregard of the requirements of the rules justifies dismissal. 4A C. Wright and A. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure, Civ.2d § 1088; Benjamin v. Grosnick, 999 F.2d 590, 594 (1st Cir.1993) (dismissal for defective service not required where defect in service did not prejudice defendant); see also, Hobson v. Wilson, 737 F.2d 1 (D.C.Cir.1984) (dismissal for defective service should be granted only when defendant was prejudiced); United Food & Comm’l Workers Union Int’l v. Alpha Beta Co., 736 F.2d 1371, 1382 (9th Cir.1984) (dismissal is generally not justified absent a showing of prejudice, and defendant’s answer and general appearance in action should prevent any technical error from invalidating entire process).

Here, Appellees do not claim that they suffered any prejudice from the minor, technical defect in the summonses, and we do not discern any prejudice. It is clear that at all times during the proceedings, Rescue Amer *441 ica and SLC had fair notice of the suit, and adequate opportunity to protect their interests. Both parties’ counsel made general appearances at every stage of the proceeding, and had ample opportunity to defend against the Appellants’ claims. Dismissing the claims against Rescue America and SLC exalts the form of Rule 4 over its substance and purpose. We therefore find that the district court improperly dismissed the Appellants’ claims against Rescue America and SLC on these grounds, and we accordingly reinstate the claims against these Appellees. We may now turn to the substance of Appellants’ claims.

III. ANALYSIS

A. Appellants’ RICO claims

Appellants allege that Appellees have conspired to, and have conducted or participated in the conduct of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activities, specifically with intent to extort Appellants’ property interest in their business and practice of health care, all in violation of §§ 1962(c) and (d) of RICO. 9

To state a claim under § 1962(c), a plaintiff must allege each of the four elements required by the statute: 1) conduct; 2) of an enterprise; 3) through a pattern; 4) of racketeering activity. Feinstein v. Resolution Trust Corp., 942 F.2d 34, 41 (1st Cir. 1991) (citing Sedima, S.P.R.L., 473 U.S. at 496, 105 S.Ct. at 3285). For claims under § 1962(d), a plaintiff must show that each defendant in the RICO conspiracy case joined knowingly in the scheme and was involved himself, directly or indirectly, in the commission of at least two predicate acts. Feinstein, 942 F.2d at 41 (citations omitted); see also United States v. Angiulo, 847 F.2d 956, 964 (1st Cir.) (necessary elements of RICO conspiracy charge are 1) existence of enterprise; 2) that each defendant knowingly joined the enterprise; and 3) that each defendant agreed to commit, or in fact committed, two or more predicate acts as part of his participation in enterprise), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 852, 109 S.Ct. 138, 102 L.Ed.2d 110 (1988).

1. Have Appellants established an “enterprise”?

The term “enterprise” is defined in the RICO statute as including “any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity, and any union or group of individuals associated in fact although not a legal entity.” § 1961(4) (emphasis added). There are, therefore, two types of enterprises: legal entities and associations-in-fact. United States v. Turkette, 452 U.S. 576, 580-581, 101 S.Ct. 2524, 2527-28, 69 L.Ed.2d 246 (1981). The Supreme Court has explained that in order to prove a RICO claim, a plaintiff must show both an “enterprise” and a “pattern of racketeering activity.” Turkette, 452 U.S. at 583, 101 S.Ct. at 2528-29. The enterprise is an entity, a group of persons associated for a common purpose of engaging in a course of conduct. The pattern of racketeering activity, on the other hand, is a series of criminal acts as defined by the RICO statute. The former is proved by “evidence of an ongoing organization, formal or informal, and by evidence that the various associates function as a continuing unit.” Id. The latter is proved by “evidence of the requisite number of acts of racketeering committed by the participants in the enterprise.” Id. While the proof used to establish these separate elements may “coalesce,” proof of one does not necessarily establish the other. Id. The “enterprise” is not the “pattern of racketeering activity;” it is an entity apart and distinct from the pattern of activity in which it engages. The existence of an enterprise is, therefore, a separate element which must be proven. Id.

The enterprise need not be a profit-seeking entity, or a victim of unlawful activities. Scheidler, — U.S. at-,