Justia Government Contracts Opinion Summaries

Nursing Personnel appealed the district court's partial judgment awarding plaintiff $185,962.12 in attorneys' fees under the attorneys' fees provision of the False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. 3730(d)(1). Nursing Personnel filed the appeal to challenge time entries in plaintiff's fee petition. The court held that Nursing Personnel waived its challenge to the time entries by failing to raise this objection before the district court. Accordingly, the court affirmed and remanded for the limited purpose of awarding plaintiff appellate attorneys' fees. View "United States ex rel. Keshner v. Nursing Personnel Home Care" on Justia Law

Hospitals that are disadvantaged by their geographic location may reclassify to a different wage index area for certain Medicare reimbursement purposes by applying for redesignation to the Medicare Geographic Classification Review Board. Section 401 of the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999, enacted 10 years after the Board was established, creates a separate mechanism by which qualifying hospitals located in urban areas “shall [be] treat[ed] . . . [as] rural” for the same reimbursement purposes. To avoid possible strategic maneuvering by hospitals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a regulation providing that hospitals with Section 401 status cannot receive additional reclassification by the Board on the basis of that status, 42 C.F.R. 412.230(a)(5)(iii) (Reclassification Rule). Geisinger, a hospital located in an urban area, received rural designation under Section 401 but was unable to obtain further reclassification by the Board pursuant to the Reclassification Rule. Geisinger sued. The district court upheld the regulation. The Third Circuit reversed, finding that Section 401 is unambiguous: HHS shall treat Section 401 hospitals as rural for Board reclassification purposes, 42 U.S.C. 1395ww(d)(8)(E)(i) View "Geisinger Cmty. Med. Ctr. v. Sec'y United States Dep't of Health & Human Servs." on Justia Law

McClellan operated T&M Daycare. Nearly all of its clients participated in an Illinois program that reimbursed daycare centers. To qualify, a parent or guardian had to reside in Illinois, be employed or attend school, and have an income below a specified amount. McClellan instructed T&M’s director to falsify records so that T&M could receive state reimbursement. McClellan was also seen changing numbers on sheets submitted for state reimbursement of meals. McClellan purchased Paragon restaurant. The Department of Homeland Security had been investigating information that illegal aliens were working there. Paragon’s manager agreed to record conversations with McClellan and to provide documentary evidence that McClellan was paying wages in cash and was not reporting those wages to the state. McClellan used T&M’s account to purchase a house, where undocumented kitchen staff lived rent‐free. Recorded conversations revealed McClellan’s knowledge of the workers’ illegal status. Agents executed search warrants and found 12 workers without legal status. McClellan was charged with harboring illegal aliens, 8 U.S.C. 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii); mail fraud, 18 U.S.C. 1341, based on his submission of fraudulent employment tax reports; and engaging in a monetary transaction involving criminally derived property, 18 U.S.C. 1957, based on the transfer of T&M funds for the house purchase. The Seventh Circuit affirmed his convictions, rejecting challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence and to jury instructions. View "United States v. McClellan" on Justia Law

Plaintiff appealed his dismissal from a qui tam suit concerning the billing practices of government contractor CH2M Hill. The court held, as a matter of first impression, that the False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. 3730(d)(3), requires the dismissal of a qui tam relator convicted of the conduct giving rise to the fraud, even if he or she only played a minor role. In this case, plaintiff, like many of his colleagues, submitted false time cards, and, as a result, received at least $50,000 for falsely claimed overtime hours. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Schroeder v. United States" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs filed a qui tam action under the False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. 3729 et seq., claiming that State Farm submitted false claims to the government for payment on flood policies arising out of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. On appeal, plaintiffs primarily challenged the district court's discovery ruling and State Farm principally challenged the jury verdict. The court concluded that the district court's denial of plaintiffs' request for additional discovery after the verdict in their favor was an abuse of discretion because it affected plaintiffs' substantial rights and therefore, the court reversed the district court’s decision. However, the court affirmed the district court’s decisions with respect to the seal violations, subject matter jurisdiction, and State Farm’s motion for judgment as a matter of law. The court remanded for further proceedings. View "Rigsby v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co." on Justia Law

Upon remand of relator's qui tam suit, the district court ruled that the District violated the False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. 3729(a), when it submitted a Medicaid reimbursement claim for FY 1998 and imposed the maximum penalty of $11,000. Both parties appealed. The court reversed and remanded, concluding that the relevant federal regulations, which were incorporated into the District’s Medicaid State Plan, required the District to maintain records supporting its Medicaid reimbursement claims that could be produced for audit. Pursuant to contractual obligations, relator’s firm was to prepare the FY 1998 interim Medicaid claims and year-end cost report, and consequently his firm, not the District, had physical possession of the underlying documentation supporting the District’s claim. Given this arrangement, the District reasonably understood when it submitted the claim for payment that it could, through the firm, make the supporting records available for audit. View "United States ex. rel. Davis v. District of Columbia" on Justia Law

Relator filed a qui tam action against Tuomey under the False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. 3729-33, and the government intervened. The jury determined that Tuomey did not violate the FCA, but the district court vacated the verdict and granted the government's motion for a new trial after concluding that it had erroneously excluded excerpts of a Tuomey executive's deposition testimony. In this appeal, Tuomey contends that the district court erred in granting the government’s motion for a new trial, and Tuomey raised numerous other challenges. The court concluded that the district court correctly granted the government’s motion for a new trial, albeit for a reason different than that relied upon by the district court. The court affirmed the district court’s order granting a new trial on the alternative ground urged by the government - that it was prejudiced by the exclusion of the executive’s testimony and other related evidence of his warnings to Tuomey regarding the legal peril that the employment contracts posed. The court rejected Tuomey’s claims of error following the second trial. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court’s judgment. View "U.S. ex rel. Drakeford v. Tuomey" on Justia Law

Appellants Larry Savage, Richard Pellegrino, and Tucker Hobgood challenged a trial court’s validation of revenue bonds that will be used to help finance a new stadium in Cobb County for the Atlanta Braves major league baseball team. The bonds for the stadium project were to be issued pursuant to an intergovernmental agreement between Cobb County and the Cobb-Marietta Coliseum and Exhibit Hall Authority, under which the Authority agreed to issue bonds to cover much of the cost of constructing the stadium and the County agreed to pay amounts sufficient to cover the bond payments not covered by the licensing fees paid by the team. In consolidated appeals, the Supreme Court concluded that the intergovernmental contract was valid; that the issuance of the bonds would not violate the Georgia Constitution’s debt limitation clause, gratuities clause, or lending clause or Georgia’s revenue bond laws; and that the process used to validate the bonds was not deficient. The Court therefore affirmed the trial court’s judgment validating the stadium project bonds. View "Savage v. Georgia" on Justia Law

The Georgia Supreme Court granted a discretionary appeal of Elbert County, its Board of Commissioners, and the County Manager (collectively, “the County”) of a superior court order that, inter alia, granted a declaratory judgment to the effect that the Elbert County Solid Waste Disposal Ordinance was unconstitutional, denied the County’s motion to dismiss, and issued a writ of mandamus requiring the County to reasonably consider the site proposed by Sweet City Landfill, LLC and its members for a solid waste landfill. Taking each of the County's contentions of error in turn, the Supreme Court concluded the trial court erred in its decision as to all. The case was remanded therefore for further proceedings. View "Elbert County v. Sweet City Landfill, LLC" on Justia Law

Greater Houston Partnership (GHP) is a nonprofit corporation providing economic development services to the City and other clients pursuant to quid pro quo contracts. A Houston area resident submitted to GHP a request seeking a copy of GHP’s check register. The resident claimed that GHP is an organization that spends or is supported in whole or in part by public funds, and therefore, GHP is subject to the Texas Public Information Act (TPIA) in the same manner as a governmental body. GHP did not disclose the requested information, claiming that it did not qualify as a “governmental body” under the TPIA because the public funds it received were compensation for services provided to the City of Houston pursuant to a contract. The Attorney General concluded that GHP was subject to the TPIA’s disclosure requirements. The trial court agreed, and the court of appeals affirmed the trial court. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that GHP is not a “governmental body” under the TPIA because it is not wholly or partially sustained by public funds. View "Greater Houston P’ship v. Paxton" on Justia Law