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: Virginia Qui Tam Law

New SCOTUS Opinion on the Federal False Claims Act

By Zachary A. Kitts

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Today SCOTUS issued its opinion in United States ex rel Eisenstein v. City of New York, et al., holding that if the United States declines to intervene in a False Claims Act case initiated by a qui tam relator, the United States is not considered a "party" to the litigation for purposes of determining when a party must file its notice of appeal.

Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4 and 28 U.S.C. § 2107 both provide that parties generally have 30 days in which to appeal lower court decisions. However, when the United States or a U.S. officer or agency is a party to the litigation, all parties have 60 days in which to appeal. Thus, the question arose whether a party had 30 or 60 days in which to note an appeal in a non-intervened qui tam case.

As readers of this blog are aware, questions regarding the government's status and role in non-intervened qui tam cases often become complex. There is no question that the United States remains the real party in interest in non-intervened cases. For example, the United States always has notice of every FCA case filed by a qui tam relator, and is always at least minimally involved in every such case. The United States will also receive at least 70% of the total recovery in any non-intervened FCA case.

Today's opinion confirms what FCA practitioners have known all along--the question of whether the government is a party to non-intervened FCA litigation has to be answered on a case-by-case basis.

Full post as published by Virginia Qui Tam Law on June 08, 2009 (boomark / email).