We have previously posted about the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s January 8 panel decision in U.S. ex rel. Badr v. Triple Canopy and its implications for “implied certification” False Claims Act (FCA) claims based on breaches of contract in the Fourth Circuit. On Monday, March 9, the Fourth Circuit denied Triple Canopy’s petition for rehearing en banc. In seeking rehearing, Triple Canopy argued that, among other things, the Fourth Circuit’s decision expands the implied certification theory of FCA liability beyond the bounds recognized in other jurisdictions, rendering the Fourth Circuit an outlier:
Despite this clear and restrained jurisprudence, the panel decision embraced the theory of implied certification and expanded it beyond the bounds ever considered by this Court or applied by those circuits which recognize the theory. Under the panel’s theory, any knowing breach of contract is a violation of the FCA.
Further:
And by not even restricting viable implied certification claims to circumstances where compliance with a statute or contractual provision was an express condition of payment, the panel’s opinion abandoned that safeguard in favor of making every contract breach an FCA violation. This is a striking expansion of FCA liability, especially where this Court has repeatedly rejected such an outcome.
Triple Canopy cited the Western District of Virginia’s decision in Skinner v. Armet Armored Vehicles, Inc., on which we also recently posted, as an example of the potentially overly broad reach of the FCA in the Fourth Circuit after Triple Canopy. While the arguments advanced in favor of rehearing were consistent with many of the criticisms the Triple Canopy opinion has drawn, the Fourth Circuit was not convinced, declining to revisit its decision.