Completing Klehr v. A.O. Smith Corp., and resolving the oddity and lingering questions of civil RICO statute of limitations accrual

I. INTRODUCTION Civil RICO1 was left "limitations-naked"2 when enacted by Congress in 1970, and remained that way until the Supreme Court clothed the statute with a four-year statute of limitations period in a 1987 case, Agency Holding Corp. v. Malley-Duff & Associates.3 But the Malley-Duff Court did not determine when that limitations period should begin to run.4 In the wake of the Malley-Duff decision, the federal courts delineated essentially three conflicting rules for civil RICO statute of limitations accrual.5 Thus, for over ten years, RICO litigants have been asking: When does the civil RICO statute of limitations accrue? Many anticipated the Supreme Court would answer this …