Litigation Alert
On August 30, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit held that the pro tanto rule is the appropriate measure of settlement offsets when calculating damages under the False Claims Act (FCA). In a matter of first impression, the court in United States v. Honeywell International Inc., No. 21-5179 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 30, 2022) concluded that prior settlements reduce the overall joint and several liability that remains to be paid by other defendants on a dollar-for-dollar basis, regardless of the defendant's proportion of fault. The decision is especially noteworthy for the government contractor industry, where FCA claims are often brought against several targets, such as contractors, subcontractors, and associated individuals. Going forward, it will be important for contractors to closely monitor the settlements of other defendants to determine if their potential liability can be reduced by such prior settlements.
In 2008, the U.S. sued Honeywell International Inc. (Honeywell) for $11.5 million in damages, trebled to $35 million, for providing the material in allegedly defective bulletproof vests sold to the government. The government alleged that Honeywell knew the material degraded in hot conditions, but nonetheless represented it was "state-of-the-art ballistics technology." At the same time, the government pursued FCA litigation and ultimately reached settlements worth $36 million with Armor Holdings, Inc., the manufacturer of the vests,...
The prosecution said the videos, published on Instagram, contained unsubstantiated allegations against a faculty member at the law school of an unnamed private university and were considered capab...