GRAHAM COUNTY SOIL & WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT, et al. v. UNITED STATES ex rel. KAREN T. WILSON (545 U.S. 409)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 20, 2005 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 545 U.S. 409 · 125 S. Ct. 2444
- Decided
- June 20, 2005
- Term
- October Term 2004
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Thomas
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents the question whether the 6-year statute of limitations in the False Claims Act (FCA or Act), see 31 U. S. C. § 3731(b)(1), governs FCA civil actions for retaliation, see § 3730(h). We hold that it does not and therefore conclude that the most closely analogous state limitations period applies. I The FCA prohibits any person from making false or fraudulent claims for payment to the United States. § 3729(a). Persons who do so are liable for civil penalties of up to $10,000 per claim and treble damages. Ibid. The Act sets forth two principal enforcement mechanisms for policing this proscription. First, the Attorney General may sue to remedy violations of § 3729. § 3730(a). Second, private individuals may bring qui tam actions in the Government’s name for §3729 violations. § 3730(b)(1); see Vermont Agency of Natural Resources v. United States ex rel. Stevens, 529 U. S. 765, 769-772 (2000). The qui tam relator must give the Government notice of the action, and the Government is entitled to intervene in the suit. § 3730(b)(2). The relator receives up to 30 percent of the proceeds of the action, in addition to attorney’s fees and costs. §§ 3730(d)(1), (2). The 1986 amendments to the FCA created a third enforcement mechanism: a private cause of action for an individual retaliated against by his employer for…
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