United States Sixth Circuit

In False Claims Act suits alleging fraud in the negotiation and execution of subcontracts relating to the construction of U.S. Navy destroyers, judgments for defendants-subcontractors are reversed in part where the district court erred in construing the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. section 3729, to require a showing that a false claim had actually been presented to the U.S. government for liability to attach. While liability under section 3729(a)(1) turns on whether a claim has been presented to the government, subsections (a)(2) and (a)(3) do not require such a showing, and a relator under those two subsections must show that government money was used to pay the false or fraudulent claim.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/19/2006
• Published 12/19/2006

Judges

• GIBBONS, Circuit Judge., GIBBONS, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which COOK, J., joined.  BATCHELDER, J. (pp. 627-28), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

Court

• United States Sixth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  James B. Helmer, Jr., Helmer, Martins, Rice & Popham, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellants.  Glenn V. Whitaker, Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellees.  Steve Frank, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Amici Curiae.   ON BRIEF:  James B. Helmer, Jr., Paul B. Martins, Robert M. Rice, Helmer, Martins, Rice & Popham, Cincinnati, Ohio, Scott A. Powell, Don McKenna, Hare, Wynn, Newell & Newton, Birmingham, Alabama, for Appellants.  Glenn V. Whitaker, Victor A. Walton, Jr., Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellees.  Steve Frank, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., Joseph E.B. White, Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund, Washington, D.C., for Amici Curiae.