The Public Disclosure Bar in False Claims Act Cases A provision of the False Claims Act commonly referred to as the Public Disclosure Bar stops relators from pursuing actions on behalf of the government if the “transactions and allegations” of fraud have been publicly disclosed through various sources listed in the statute. 31 U.S.C. [...]
On August 5, 2019, the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois issued a rare ruling granting partial summary judgment for plaintiff-relators in a False Claims Act case. United States ex rel. Schutte v. SuperValu, Inc. et al., No. 11-3290, 2019 WL 3558483 (C.D.Ill. Aug. 5, 2019). Relying heavily on the [...]
If one reads between the lines of a May 7, 2019 opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (covering Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi), it appears that the court comes to the seemingly unremarkable conclusion that Medicare would not intentionally pay for hospice care for patients who are dead: “Relators claimed [...]
In U.S. ex rel. CIMZNHCA v. UCB, Inc., 2019 WL 1598109 (S.D. Ill. Apr. 15, 2019), the court denied the Government’s motion to dismiss a facially valid case alleging illegal kickbacks. The relator is a limited liability holding company of an entity called the National Health Care Analysis Group, which is an entity formed [...]
The Department of Justice, with the Office of the United States Attorney of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, recently joined a lawsuit filed by private whistleblowers against Mallinckrodt ARD LLC, a drug manufacturer. The Government’s complaint was filed on June 4, 2019, although the case had initially been filed in 2012. The case alleges [...]
In U.S. ex rel. Bibby v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 369 F. Supp. 3d 1346 (N.D. Ga. 2019), the district court that had handled the False Claims Act (“FCA”) litigation for the last seven years of its thirteen-year history rejected the Government’s attempt to limit relators to the minimum statutory share and instead awarded [...]
As readers of this blog well know, the False Claims Act allows individuals who become aware of fraud committed against the federal government to bring a lawsuit on the government’s behalf. Although there are a variety of restrictions, the whistleblower (also called a relator) files the case under seal, allowing the government to decide [...]
In an April 2019 opinion from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the court denied a company’s motion to require its employee to return all documents the employee had taken for purposes of reporting a suspected fraud to the government. In United States ex rel. Behnke v. CVS Caremark Corp., No. 14-cv-824, the court addressed [...]
On March 25, 2019, the Department of Justice announced a large settlement with Duke University for False Claims Act (“FCA”) allegations related to fraud in connection with federal grants. Duke will pay the government $112.5 million to resolve allegations that it violated the FCA through the submission of various applications and progress reports based [...]
In a unanimous decision strongly supporting whistleblowers and recognizing the public interest that they serve, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court confirmed that an employee terminated for reporting suspicious activities by a government sub-contractor could recover non-economic damages – essentially, damages for emotional distress – in addition to economic damages for loss of employment. Given the [...]
