False Claims Act: Volume 1 pdf

THIS CASEBOOK contains a selection of U. S. Court of Appeals decisions that analyze, interpret and apply provisions of the False Claims Act. Volume 1 of the casebook covers the District of Columbia Circuit and the First through the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The False Claims Act (FCA) imposes civil liability for making a false or fraudulent "claim," or a false record or statement material to such a claim, to obtain payment from the federal government. 31 U.S.C. § 3729(a)(1)(A)-(G), (b)(2). Both the Justice Department and private parties (called "relators") may bring an FCA action. The FCA imposes civil penalties on a per-violation basis plus three times actual damages, § 3729(a)(1), and authorizes recovery of a relator's attorneys' fees, § 3730(d)(1)-(2).

In 2008, the Supreme Court held in Allison Engine Co. v. U.S. ex rel. Sanders, 553 U.S. 662, 128 S.Ct. 2123, 170 L.Ed.2d 1030 (2008), that liability under (former) § 3729(a)(1) required a defendant's direct presentment of the false claim to an officer or employee of the Government and that liability under (former) § 3729(a)(2) required proof of the defendant's specific intent to defraud the Government. Id. at 668-72, 128 S.Ct. 2123. To "clarify and correct [those] erroneous interpretations of the [FCA]," S. Rep. No. 111-10, at 10 (2009); see also id. at 4, Congress amended the FCA in the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 (FERA). Pub. L. No. 111-21, § 4, 123 Stat. 1625. FERA eliminated (a)(1)'s requirement that the false claim be presented "to an officer or employee of the United States" and amended (a)(2) to remove the language that the Supreme Court had read to require specific intent to defraud the Government. See, e.g., Pub. L. No. 111-21, § 4; S. Rep. No. 111-10 at 11.

FERA also amended the FCA to make clear that liability under the renumbered § 3729(a)(1)(B) (formerly (a)(2)), [ ], requires that the false statement be material. So (a)(1)(B) liability now attaches when the defendant "knowingly makes, uses, or causes to be made or used, a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim." 31 U.S.C. § 3729(a)(1)(B). After FERA, materiality means "having the tendency to influence, or be capable of influencing, the payment or receipt of money or property." § 3729(b)(4). And "knowingly" embraces actual knowledge of the false information, deliberate ignorance of its truth or falsity, and reckless disregard of its truth or falsity. See § 3729(b)(1)(A).

United States v. Farfield Company, 5 F. 4th 315 (3rd Cir. 2021)