United States Third Circuit

Dismissal of a qui tam action under the False Claims Act (FCA) alleging that defendants-companies conspired to, and did, defraud the United States Navy in connection with a contract to build oil tankers is affirmed where the action had to be dismissed in its entirety under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) for want of jurisdiction as: 1) all of the allegations and transactions involved in each of the counts were publicly disclosed under 31 U.S.C. section 3730(e)(4)(A); 2) plaintiff was not an original source of any of the allegations or transactions at issue; and 3) a plaintiff cannot rely solely on information available in the public domain to substantiate original source status under section 3730(e)(4)(B)

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/15/2005
• Decided 01/12/2007
• Published 01/12/2007

Judges

• Before FUENTES, BECKER , and ROTH , Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Third Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• William N. France, Esquire, (Argued), Healy & Baillie LLP, New York, NY, for Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• John G. Harkins, Jr., Esquire, (Argued), Eleanor M. Illoway, Esquire, David W. Engstrom, Esquire, Harkins Cunningham, Philadelphia, PA, for Appellee Sun Ship Inc., Thomas H. Lee, II, Esquire, (Argued), Veronica B. Rice, Esq., Dechert LLP, Philadelphia, PA, Joseph O. Click, Esquire, Blank Rome LLP, Washington, DC, for Appellee PA Shipbuilding Co., Joseph G. DeRespino, Esquire, (Argued), Robert J. Dougher, Esquire, DeRespino & Dougher, Philadelphia, PA, for Appellee Fidelity Bank.