Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has sued the builders of affordable housing in that state. Coakley has alleged that Crossroads Development LLC, which developed a 12-unit complex in Acton, Massachusetts, violated provisions of the Massachusetts False Claims Act by submitting phony cost statements to the state for reimbursement. Under the Massachusetts statute, as under the [...]
A bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate would make it easier for American consumers to seek redress from foreign manufacturers in U.S. courts. The Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act of 2009, co-sponsored by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) and Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), would require foreign manufacturers to retain a business representative in at least [...]
James Gordon, previously the director of operations with ArmorGroup North America (AGNA), has sued the company in a whistleblower lawsuit. Filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., the complaint alleges that AGNA violated the False Claims Act by unlawfully retaliating against Gordon for reporting numerous incidents of wrongdoing at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. [...]
Inez Tenenbaum, the new chairman of the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, promised members of Congress on September 10 that her agency would vigorously investigate imported Chinese drywall that has caused problems for thousands of U.S. homes. The CPSC has received more than 1,300 incident reports from 26 states concerning Chinese drywall, most from the [...]
Pinkerton Government Services Inc. (PGS), a Louisiana contractor, has settled a False Claims Act lawsuit alleging that the company improperly billed the government in connection with health insurance costs. The government charged that PGS did not seek approval to bill for the health care expenses of its employees, in violation of the False Claims Act. [...]
Florida’s lieutenant governor Jeffrey Kottkamp has filed suit against Krauf Plasterboard Tianjin, a Chinese drywall manufacturer, in federal court. The tainted drywall product has allegedly caused problems to the lieutenant governor’s North Fort Myers home, including corroded air conditioning coils and electrical wiring as well as a bad odor. Thousands of homes across the country [...]
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled that a whistleblower lawsuit filed under the federal False Claims Act may be thrown out of court as a penalty for the lawyer’s misconduct. The issue arose when Judge Milton Shadur, a federal court judge in Chicago, dismissed a whistleblower suit against Sallie [...]
U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon, the New Orleans federal judge overseeing consolidated U.S. lawsuits involving tainted Chinese drywall, has ordered the inspections of several homes in Florida, Louisiana, and seven other states to help set up a protocol for affected homes. The court-ordered inspection is intended to be an unbiased and consistent way to [...]
Lawsuits over tainted Chinese drywall number approximately 150, and more are being filed almost daily, according to federal court records. The cases, which are being consolidated in a New Orleans federal court, involve drywall imported from China that is tainted with sulfur gases. Drywall, a product sometimes called Sheetrock, gypsum board and wallboard, is the [...]
A federal judge in Mississippi has refused to dismiss a False Claims Act suit against State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. The lawsuit, filed by two sisters who worked as claims adjusters for an independent contractor hired by State Farm to help process claims after Hurricane Katrina, alleges that State Farm inflated and overpaid homeowners’ [...]