Finding the plaintiff did not meet his burden of proving he was terminated in retaliation for engaging in False Claims Act (FCA)-protected activity, a jury returned a verdict for the former employer, a subsidiary of a publicly traded life sciences company.
Jackson Lewis attorneys Donny English, Kathleen McGinley, and Liane Kozik defended the employer in the three-week jury trial.
Background
A sales manager alleged that he was terminated in retaliation for making a complaint under the FCA. The employer maintained that the plaintiff did not make a FCA complaint and he was terminated due to poor sales performance after being suspended by two hospital systems for misconduct.
In order for the plaintiff to prevail on his FCA retaliation claim, he had to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that:
Jury Verdict
In delivering its verdict after deliberating for nearly two days, the Maryland jury found that the plaintiff did not meet his burden on the first element of the claim — whether he engaged in FCA-protected activity designed to stop a current or future violation of the FCA.
The defense emphasized that whether the plaintiff engaged in FCA-protected activity was not subject to many factual disputes. The jury heard and saw evidence...
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