Rockwell International Corp. v. United States
2007 United States Supreme Court case / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rockwell International Corp. v. United States, 549 U.S. 457 (2007), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court examined the "original source" exception to the "public-disclosure" bar of the False Claims Act. The Court held that (1) the original source requirement of the FCA provision setting for the original-source exception to the public-disclosure bar on federal-court jurisdiction is jurisdictional; (2) the statutory phrase "information on which the allegations are based" refers to the relator's allegations and not the publicly disclosed allegations; the terms "allegations" is not limited to the allegations in the original complaint, but includes, at a minimum, the allegations in the original complaint as amended; (3) relator's knowledge with respect to the pondcrete fell short of the direct and independent knowledge of the information on which the allegations are based required for him to qualify as an original source; and (4) the government's intervention did not provide an independent basis of jurisdiction with respect to the relator.
Rockwell International Corp. v. United States | |
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Argued December 5, 2006 Decided March 27, 2007 | |
Full case name | Rockwell International Corp., et al. v. United States, et al. |
Citations | 549 U.S. 457 (more) 127 S. Ct. 1397; 167 L. Ed. 2d 190; 2007 U.S. LEXIS 3778 |
Holding | |
The original source requirement of the False Claims Act (FCA) provision setting for the original-source exception to the public-disclosure bar on federal-court jurisdiction is jurisdictional; the statutory phrase "information on which the allegations are based" refers to the relator's allegations and not the publicly disclosed allegations; the terms "allegations" is not limited to the allegations in the original complaint, but includes, at a minimum, the allegations in the original complaint as amended; relator's knowledge with respect to the pondcrete fell short of the direct and independent knowledge of the information on which the allegations are based required for him to qualify as an original source; and the government's intervention did not provide an independent basis of jurisdiction with respect to the relator. Decision of the appeals court reversed. | |
Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Majority | Scalia, joined by Roberts, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Alito |
Dissent | Stevens, joined by Ginsburg |
Breyer took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. | |
Laws applied | |
False Claims Act |