Justia Civil Procedure Opinion Summaries

Robert Gadbois (Relator) filed this qui tam action in the District of Rhode Island alleging PharMerica Corp. had violated the False Claims Act (FCA) and several parallel state statutes. Relator then filed a seconded amended complaint. The district court dismissed Relator’s FCA claim, concluding that Relator’s action and an earlier-filed action pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin were based on substantially the same facts, and therefore, the district court lacked jurisdiction by virtue of the FCA’s first-to-file bar. The court dismissed Relator’s state-law claims as well. Relator appealed. During briefing, the Supreme Court decided Kellogg Brown & Root Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Carter, and the Wisconsin action was settled and dismissed, both of which dissolved the jurisdictional impediment to Relator’s action. Relator responded by broadening his appeal to include the possibility of supplementing his pleadings with the fact that the Wisconsin action was no longer pending. The First Circuit vacated the judgment of the district court to allow the court to consider Relator’s request for supplementation under Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(d), holding that Rule 15(d) is available to cure most kinds of defects in subject matter jurisdiction. View "Gadbois v. PharMerica Corp." on Justia Law