On June 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a defendant mortgage servicer, holding that while the plaintiff had sufficient proof of materiality with respect to alleged violations of the False Claims Act (FCA), plaintiff failed to meet her burden of proof on the element of causation. Plaintiff (formerly employed by the defendant as an underwriter) alleged the defendant made false representations to HUD in the course of certifying residential mortgage loans for federal insurance coverage. She maintained that HUD would not have endorsed the loans for federal insurance if it had known defendant was not satisfying the agency’s minimum underwriting guidelines. Defendant moved for summary judgment after the district court excluded the bulk of plaintiff’s “expert opinion,” arguing that plaintiff could not meet her evidentiary burden on the available record. The district court sided with defendant, ruling that as a matter of law, plaintiff could not prove either materiality (due to the lack of evidence that would allow “a reasonable factfinder to conclude that HUD viewed the alleged underwriting deficiencies as important”) or causation (the false statement caused the government’s loss).
On appeal, the 7th Circuit explained that to show proximate causation, plaintiff was required to identify evidence indicating that the alleged false certifications in reviewed loans were the foreseeable cause of...
A deadline buried in a March 26 executive order, which aims to curb federal contractors' purported discrimination related to diversity, equity and inclusion practices, is drawing attention from fed...