United States ex rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Resources, Inc. (S. Ct. June 16, 2023)
The vast majority of False Claims Act cases are initiated by private parties, known as relators, not the government. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's most recent fraud statistics, the number of False Claims Act cases initiated by relators has outnumbered those initiated by the government every year since 1995. And, because the government declines to intervene in most qui tam cases, relators may end up spending substantial time, money, and energy in the pursuit of their claims on behalf of the government. In these situations, does the government still retain the right to intervene and move to dismiss a case that a relator may have spent years litigating on its own? And, if the government does move to dismiss, is that motion decided based on the usual standards applied to any federal civil case?
On June 16, in an 8-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court answered yes to both questions in United States ex rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Resources, Inc., No. 21-1052. Specifically, the Court held that first, the government can move to dismiss a case "whenever (whether during the seal period or later) it has intervened," and second, when it does, district courts must assess the motion using the standards of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41, while also acknowledging that "the Government's views are entitled to substantial deference" because a qui tam suit "is on behalf...
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