This week, the Court addresses the pleading standard for a claim of false or misleading statements in connection with a tender offer under Section 14(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Court holds that...more
The Supreme Court (Court) will soon decide whether to take up a critical (and long-running) issue concerning applicability of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b) pleading standards in False Claim Act (FCA) suits. To satisfy...more
On April 20, in Frei v. Taro Pharmaceutical U.S.A., Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a Southern District of New York opinion from U.S. District Court Judge Vincent Briccetti, which dismissed,...more
On September 26, 2019, Justice Saliann Scarpulla of the New York State Supreme Court, County of New York, Commercial Division, dismissed a putative class action against a dental products and services company and certain of...more
On September 30, 2019, Judge J. Paul Oetken of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a putative securities class action brought against a pharmaceutical company and certain of its...more
On July 19, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted an employer’s motion to dismiss a SOX whistleblower claim, holding that the Plaintiff—an in-house attorney—failed to allege sufficient facts...more
As part of our ongoing discussion of the Polukoff False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case (involving allegations that certain heart procedures performed by a cardiologist, and billed for by two hospital defendants, were not...more
On February 11, 2019, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a group of relators’ qui tam suit against Crawford County Memorial Hospital for failure to meet the pleading standards required by Federal Rule of Civil...more
The False Claims Act (FCA) continues to be the federal government’s primary civil enforcement tool for imposing liability on healthcare providers who defraud federal healthcare programs. A significant portion of FCA...more
On January 14, 2019, Intermountain Healthcare, Inc. and Intermountain Medical Center (Intermountain) filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court. Intermountain’s petition comes after the U.S. Court of...more
The Decision: A divided Sixth Circuit panel held that allegations of submitting late-signed supporting documents to Medicare could plead False Claims Act ("FCA") materiality and scienter. The Reasoning: Timing regulations...more
This quarter's issue includes summaries and associated court opinions of selected cases principally decided between November 2017 and January 2018. The cases address developing trends in appraisal, class certification, core...more
Recently, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed three of six claims the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asserted against D-Link Systems (D-Link) related to its sale of routers and IP cameras...more
Last week, the Second Circuit held that a False Claims Act relator does not have to plead details of specific alleged false billings or invoices to the government, as long as he can allege facts leading to a strong inference...more
The FCA continues to be the federal government’s primary civil enforcement tool for investigating allegations that healthcare providers or government contractors defrauded the federal government. In the coming weeks, we are...more
In United States ex rel. Hirt v. Walgreen Company, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of a pharmacy owner’s False Claims Act (“FCA”) lawsuit because he failed to plead his...more
A recent Sixth Circuit opinion in U.S. ex rel. Hirt v. Walgreen Co. should come as welcome news for FCA defendants concerned about the implications of the Sixth Circuit’s application last year, for the first time, of a...more
The Escobar and Sanford-Brown Decisions - This summer, the United States Supreme Court undertook to resolve the long-running circuit split over the validity and scope of the implied false certification theory of...more
A recent decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit addressed the standard that courts should use to decide whether a whistleblower plaintiff has adequately pleaded that a defendant committed fraud...more
On April 22, 2016, in Alaei v. Kraft Heinz Food Co. (“Heinz”), No. 3:15-cv-02961, Southern District of California Judge Michael M. Anello granted defendant Heinz’s motion to dismiss without prejudice plaintiff Suzanne Alaei’s...more
On Wednesday, May 25, 2016, the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision to dismiss FCA claims alleging that defendants supplied $1.5 billion worth of deficient night-vision goggles to the U.S. military. United...more
On January 8, 2015, the Fourth Circuit determined that, amid a circuit split, the “implied certification” theory of liability under the False Claims Act (“FCA”) was viable in the Fourth Circuit. United States v. Triple...more
A federal judge in the Southern District of New York recently sustained the SEC’s insider-trading complaint against two alleged tippees, holding that, under the pleading standard applicable to a motion to dismiss, the SEC...more