Justia Government Contracts Opinion Summaries

Relator appealed the district court's dismissal of her qui tam action under the False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. 3279-3733, for lack of jurisdiction. Relator alleged that fraudulent invoices were submitted to the federal government under the Emergency Watershed Protection Program (EWP) Program in both Graham and Cherokee Counties. In relator's third amended complaint, she named as defendants Graham County, the Graham County SWCD, and the Cherokee County SWCD, along with several individuals. Although the court found no fault with the district court's factual findings, the district court applied an incorrect legal standard in reaching its conclusion as to public disclosure. Rejecting the Seventh Circuit's view, the court held that a public disclosure requires that there be some act of disclosure outside of the government. In this case, while the Audit Report and the USDA Report at issue were disclosed to government officials charged with policing the type of fraud relator alleges, nothing in the record suggests that either report actually reached the public domain. Therefore, the public disclosure bar was not triggered on this basis. That the reports were disclosed to state and local government agencies as well as federal agencies does not alter the court's conclusion. Further, the existence of public information laws does not go against the court's holding. Accordingly, the district court had jurisdiction over this action and the court reversed. View "U.S. ex rel. Wilson v. Graham Cnty. Soil & Water" on Justia Law

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) responds to a wide variety of emergencies throughout the state, including more than 5,600 wildfires each year. Although Cal Fire itself owns and operates more than 3,000 fire and emergency response vehicles, it also depends on the availability of equipment and services it hires from private vendors. Fairview Valley Fire was a vendor of emergency vehicles and services, which it provided to Cal Fire and other governmental agencies for a number of years. Cal Fire sent Fairview a letter that suspended Fairview's right to provide emergency vehicles and services. The suspension was based on Cal Fire's investigation of a 2006 incident in which a Fairview employee impersonated a high-ranking fire department officer at a morning briefing being conducted at a fire incident and thereafter contacted Cal Fire personnel and, in violation of Hired Equipment Policies and Procedures (HEPP), was able to have Fairview vehicles and personnel hired outside the normal Cal Fire rotation. Cal Fire's investigation also disclosed that Fairview personnel falsified shift tickets so that Fairview was paid for two operators of a vehicle in instances when it was only entitled to payment for one, resulting in a $6,433 overpayment to Fairview. The investigation also found that, during the incident, Fairview employees obtained several hundred gallons of diesel fuel and then attempted, unsuccessfully, to avoid paying for the fuel. Fairview appealed its suspension to the Cal Fire regional chief; the appeal was ultimately rejected. Fairview then filed a civil complaint against Cal Fire alleging: one cause of action for breach of contract arising out of a dispatcher's request for two water tenders during the Witch Creek fire; a cause of action for declaratory relief challenging Cal Fire's decision not to use its services; and a cause of action for declaratory relief challenging the lack of competitive bidding under the HEPP. After review, the Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court's judgment in favor of Cal Fire: the Court agreed with Cal Fire that the agency was not required to employ the formal competitive bid process set forth in the Public Contract Code. Under the express terms of Cal Fire's written policies and procedures, no binding contract arises between Cal Fire and an equipment vendor until a vendor's equipment is actually dispatched by Cal Fire in an emergency. Further, the Court of Appeal also found the trial court properly dismissed Fairview's causes of action challenging its suspension as a Cal Fire vendor. Moreover, Fairview had no claim related to the underlying suspension because, while the case was pending in the trial court, Cal Fire lifted the suspension. View "Fairview Valley Fire v. CA Dept. of Forestry" on Justia Law

The City of Hot Springs published a request for competitive proposals from private entities for utilization of real property owned by the City. Both Pete Lien & Sons, Inc. (“Lien”) and Croell Redi-Mix (“Croell”) submitted proposals. The City accepted Lien’s proposal, and a final contract was negotiated. Croell subsequently commenced this action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to require the City to reject all proposals and restart the process, contending that the contract involved the procurement of services and that the City had not followed the services procurement requirements of S.D. Codified Laws 5-18A-6 and 5-18A-7. Lien argued that the contract was for the lease of real property, and therefore, the service procurement statutes did not apply. The circuit court granted summary judgment to Lien and the City. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the City’s contract with Lien involved the lease of the City’s property rather than the procurement of services, and because the City followed the statutory leasing procedures, summary judgment was properly granted. View "Lowe v. City of Hot Springs" on Justia Law

FTR has constructed buildings for public entities for 15 years. In 1999, FTR submitted the winning bid of $7.345 million to construct a District school. During construction, FTR submitted approximately 150 proposed change orders (PCO). FTR claimed some were necessary because the District’s plans were inadequate or misleading. The District denied most of the PCOs on the grounds that the work was covered under the basic contract, the amounts claimed were excessive, or that a PCO was not timely under the contract. Construction was completed in 2001. Public Contract Code 7107 allows a public entity to withhold funds due a contractor when there are liens on the property or a good faith dispute concerning whether the work was properly performed. The court of appeal held that the trial court properly assessed penalties against District because it did not timely release retained funds; properly rejected the District's action under the False Claims Act, Government Code 12650; and properly assessed prejudgment interest. The court erred in its interpretation of a contract provision imposing time limitations to submit claims for extra work as requiring a showing of prejudice and erred in awarding fees for work not solely related to FTR's section 7107 cause of action. View "FTR Int'l, Inc. v. Rio Sch. Dist." on Justia Law

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission and Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Association alleged that defendants, who promoted and staged music events at the Coliseum and related venues, paid an employee of the Commission for services related to those music events and that such payments were inappropriate and not disclosed to plaintiffs. The trial court dismissed. The court of appeal reversed in part, finding that the plaintiffs adequately stated causes of action under the conflicts of interest prohibition in Government Code section 1090, conspiracy to defraud, violation of the Unfair Competition Law (UCL), and accounting. The court upheld dismissal of claims of violation of the False Claims Act, fraud, and negligence. View "Los Angeles Mem'l Coliseum Comm'n v. Insomniac, Inc." on Justia Law

O’Gorman worked for Chicago from 1996-2007, as a carpenter and later as a General Foreman, placing city orders with Arrow Lumber, owned by Beal. After an investigation following reports from an Arrow employee, O’Gorman was arrested and charged with theft of city property and violations of City Personnel Rules. The city also pursued a civil case under the Illinois Whistleblower Act and the Chicago False Claims Act, which remains pending. The city issued a press release announcing the charges that he had diverted $50,000 in goods for his own use and tried to cover the theft. Beal pled guilty. O’Gorman’s complaint under 42 U.S.C. 1983 alleged that the investigation improperly focused on O’Gorman and protected Arrow and Beal for political reasons and that Beal covered up Arrow’s fraud; that the Human Resources Director informed a union representative that if O’Gorman did not resign he would be fired and that any hearing would be a sham; and that supervisors told him that if he resigned, he would be reinstated once he was acquitted. O’Gorman resigned, was acquitted of all criminal charges, and unsuccessfully requested reinstatement. The district court dismissed. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, finding the termination claims untimely and that there is no property interest in rehiring. View "O'Gorman v. City of Chicago" on Justia Law

The issue this case presented for the Court of Appeal's review was whether the California constitution's prohibition against the impairment of contracts precluded the application of the defined benefit formulas and employee contribution provisions of the California Public Employees' Pension Reform Act of 2013 to County of San Diego safety employees who were hired after the Act's effective date, but who were covered by preexisting collective bargaining agreements containing conflicting terms. After review, the Court concluded the application of the defined benefit formula provisions did not result in a constitutionally prohibited impairment of the agreements. The Court did not reach the constitutional question as to the application of the employee contribution provisions as the Court concluded their application resulted in a statutorily prohibited impairment of the agreements. The Court affirmed the judgment as to the application of the defined benefit formula provisions and remanded the case back to the superior court for further proceedings as to the application of the employee contribution provisions. View "Deputy Sheriffs' Assn. v. County of San Diego" on Justia Law

The narrow dispute on appeal in this case centered on the straightforward interpretation of a few statutes. Those statutes authorized plaintiffs City of Emeryville and Successor Agency to the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency (collectively, Emeryville) to "reenter" into three agreements entered into before the dissolution of certain redevelopment agencies. Contrary to the view of defendant California Department of Finance, nothing in the statutory scheme providing for the orderly distribution of redevelopment funds subsequently invalidated these reentered agreements. Accordingly, the Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court judgment, which in effect compelled the Department to acknowledge the validity of those agreements. View "City of Emeryville v. Cohen" on Justia Law

Relator filed a qui tam action under the False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. 3729-3733, alleging that healthcare clinics provided, and the Humana defendants either knew of or promoted, a variety of free services for patients and health plan members. Relator alleged that the clinics offered such services without regard for medical purpose or financial need and that the value of the services is more than nominal. The court affirmed the district court's dismissal of the amended complaint with prejudice where, under the prior or amended version of section 3730 of the FCA, relator cannot overcome the public disclosure bar. View "Osheroff v. Humana Inc." on Justia Law

The City of Horn Lake contracted with Phillips Construction Company and its owner Michael Phillips to work on a sewer project. Two employees of Phillips, Bertram Hill and David Mooneyhan, were working near the bottom of a trench that was seventeen feet deep when the walls of the trench suddenly collapsed. Mooneyhan was killed, and Hill was injured. Mooneyhan's beneficiaries and Hill (collectively "Plaintiffs") sued the City for Phillips' negligence under respondeat superior and also alleged that the City had negligently hired Phillips. The circuit court granted summary judgment in favor of the City. Plaintiffs appealed. Finding that the City only acted in a supervisory role over the project, the Supreme Court concluded that was not enough to trigger a master-servant relationship for the elements of respondeat superior. The Court found that the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the City was proper, and therefore affirmed the judgment. View "Hill v. City of Horn Lake" on Justia Law