On August 26, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an order reaffirming that potential False Claims Act (FCA) whistleblowers are not immune from being fired for workplace misconduct, especially where that misconduct involves “oinking” at co-workers.
The plaintiff in Crosbie v. Highmark Inc. worked as a fraud investigator for the defendant health insurance companies. After an audit in early 2017, he discovered that several doctors in the defendants’ network had felony convictions and that others lacked necessary Medicaid licenses. He reported his concerns to his manager on multiple occasions, but the defendants never took any action.
However, just over a year later, one of the plaintiff’s co-workers complained that the plaintiff “oinked” at her and called her “Miss Piggy.” The defendants’ human resource team investigated the complaint and substantiated the allegations after the manager told the investigators that the plaintiff had coughed and snorted at him earlier that day. The plaintiff was fired a few days later and he filed a lawsuit alleging retaliation under the FCA soon after. See 31 U.S.C. § 3730(h). The defendants responded that they had valid reasons to fire the plaintiff and, in any event, the investigator who decided to fire him did not know about the fraud reports. The district court agreed and granted summary judgment for the defendants.
On appeal, the plaintiff argued that he was fired for reporting fraud—and not for oinking—because (1) the...
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