Eighth Circuit dismisses UMB Bank’s RICO claim against heirs of famous Missouri painter

ST. LOUIS (CN) — The Eighth Circuit on Thursday denied UMB Bank’s bid to revive a RICO claim against the heirs of a famous painter, finding the bank failed to state a claim.

The opinion is the latest in a long-standing legal battle between UMB Bank and the heirs of Thomas Hart Benton, a well-known Missouri painter.

In dismissing UMB Bank’s case with prejudice, the three-judge panel found that even if the heirs’ threat to sue the bank in an attempt to procure records regarding the estate was groundless, it did not amount to extortion.

“This is not a ‘blanket exemption of litigation activities’ from the mail, wire, and bank fraud statutes,” U.S. Circuit Judge James B. Loken, a George H. W. Bush appointee, wrote in the 14-page unanimous opinion. “Because UMB does not allege — certainly not with particularity — that any criminal activity tainted these private attorney-client communications over how to pressure UMB into being more responsive to the beneficiaries’ requests, that activity cannot be conduct forming a predicate act of fraud under RICO.”

Andrew Schermerhorn, who represented the Benton heirs, said in a statement that his clients look forward to proving their claims against UMB Bank now that this "distraction" is behind them.

"The decision by the Eighth Circuit supports our conviction that UMB Bank's intentional misapplication of the federal RICO statute was strategically aimed at pressuring Jessie Benton and her children to give up or compromise their probate claims against UMB, while diverting attention from UMB's mishandling of the Benton family trust," Schermerhorn said in the statement.

UMB Bank attorney Todd Ruskamp of Shook, Hardy & Bacon in Kansas City, Missouri, did not immediately responded to a request for comment.

In 2021, UMB Bank sued Jessie Benton and her three children Anthony Gude, Daria Lyman, and Cybele McCormick, claiming violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in the Western District of Missouri.

UMB Bank served as Hart Benton’s testamentary trust, but it claims that in 2014 the defendants began conspiring to remove UMB Bank as trustee by making a series of false accusations in public and in the court. Their actions forced UMB Bank to resign as trustee.

The case was dismissed in June 2022, prompting the appeal.

At a hearing this past September, Ruskamp argued that the lower court improperly construed the bank fraud statute as part of its RICO analysis and that the court analysis of RICO continuity was flawed. He said the Benton heirs knowingly made false statements about UMB Bank’s activities to the media, including self-dealing and that over 100 pieces of artwork were missing.

Schermerhorn opened his argument by stating that UMB Bank's case falls short of a RICO claim, while noting two pending related cases in state court between the parties where he believed that these claims — which he said amounted to an ordinary civil dispute — should be decided.

The appeals court also shot down UMB Bank’s claim that a federal court ignored federal and state mail and wire fraud statues in dismissing its claim that the heirs made knowingly false statements about the bank to various media outlets.

“UMB’s failure to plausibly allege a pattern of racketeering activity, an element of its RICO claim against each defendant, means that its entire claim fails,” Loken wrote.

U.S. Circuit Judges Roger L. Wollman, a Ronald Reagan appointee, and Duane Benton, a George W. Bush appointee, joined Loken in the decision.

Hart Benton was born in Neosho, Missouri, in 1889 and died in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1975. A painter, muralist and printmaker, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement and painted a 40-foot mural at the Missouri State Capitol.

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