Supreme Court of California
State of California ex rel. Harris v. PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, S131807
In a companion case to Wells v. One2One Learning Foundation, (Aug. 31, 2006, S123951), the court holds that public entities are not "persons" who may bring qui tam actions on behalf of other agencies of government under the California False Claims Act (CFCA). Thus, the city and county of San Francisco, represented by its district attorney and city attorney, is not a "person" who may sue as a qui tam relator upon a false claim under the CFCA involving, not its own funds, but exclusively funds of the state of California.
Appellate Information
- Decided 08/31/2006
- Published 08/31/2006
Judges
- BAXTER, J.
Court
- Supreme Court of California
Counsel
- For Appellant:
- Terrence Hallinan and Kamala D. Harris, District Attorneys, David A. Pfeifer, June D. Cravett and David C. Moon, Assistant District Attorneys; Dennis J. Herrera, City Attorney, Therese M. Stewart, Chief Deputy City Attorney, Joanne Hoeper, Chief Trial Attorney, Ellen M. Forman, Donald P. Margolis and David B. Newdorf, Deputy City Attorneys, for Plaintiffs and Appellants., Law Office of Eugene Dong and Eugene Dong, Palo Alto, as Amicus Curiae.
- For Appellees:
- Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Daniel M. Kolky, Joel S. Sanders, Mark A. Perry, Ethan D. Dettmer, Rebecca Justice Lazarus, San Francisco, and Catherine H. Ahin-Halverson for Defendant and Appellant.