United States Fifth Circuit

Claims against California defendants were correctly dismissed because the False Claims Act (FCA) does not provide a cause of action against state agencies or state agency officials in their official capacity. It was not an abuse of discretion to dismiss claims against the Louisiana defendants (for failure to plead fraud with specificity) without granting leave to further amend the complaint.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/30/2004
• Published 03/30/2004

Judges

• EMILIO M. GARZA, Circuit Judge:, Before EMILIO M. GARZA, DeMOSS and CLEMENT, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Brian Clay Leighton (argued), Clovis, CA, for Plaintiff-Appellant., Malcolm A. Heinicke (argued), Munger, Tolles & Olson, San Francisco, CA, Brad D. Brian, Munger, Tolles & Olson, Los Angeles, CA, for Regents of the University of Cal., Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab., Cochran, Chargin, Burleson, Thompson and Weinert., Susie Morgan (argued), Wiener, Weiss & Madison, Shreveport, LA, for Biomedical Research Found. of Northwest LA, and Sharp., William Noel Edlin, Walsworth, Franklin, Bevins & McCall, San Francisco, CA, for Louisiana Ctr. for Mfg. Sciences., Mark Reese Pharr, III (argued), Galloway, Johnson, Tompkins, Burr & Smith, Lafayette, LA, for La. Ctr. for Mfg. Sciences and Sharp., Michael Eugene Robinson (argued), Douglas N. Letter, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civ. Div.-App. Staff, Washington, DC, for U.S., Amicus Curiae.