United States First Circuit

In this case, a lawsuit was brought under the false Claims Act against a pharmaceutical company for allegedly defrauding the federal Medicaid and Medicare programs. The False Claims Act allows private party "relators" to stand in for the United States and bring qui tam actions to recover damages for wrongs done to the United States. Dismissal of plaintiffs' suit is affirmed, where: 1) the first-to-file rule blocks qui tam suits that are filed while similar enough qui tam suits are already pending; and 2) plaintiffs' qui tam suit was blocked by the first-to-file rule because a pharmacy brought a similar qui tam suit a few years prior.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/01/2014
• Published 12/01/2014

Judges

• Barron

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel