Don’t Sleep on Discovery, It Could Yield Basis for New Claim
Client Alert | 1 min read | 03.04.19
In Amec Foster Wheeler Environment & Infrastructure, Inc., CBCA 5168, 6298 (Feb. 29, 2019), the CBCA denied the government’s motion for partial dismissal, which alleged that Amec’s superior knowledge and negligent estimate claims were either “barred by the statute of limitations or insufficiently plead.” Amec alleged that it first learned the basis for its claims during discovery in appeal CBCA 5168, and it could not have known the basis for them before then. The government argued that Amec should have known of those grounds shortly after award when Amec realized the “quantities and descriptions in the contract were radically incorrect.” The Board rejected the government’s position that the “contractor should consider asserting every conceivable legal theory of relief as soon as it encounters an unforeseen condition.” The Board also disagreed with the government that it was clear that the contract specifications were not misleading and thus Amec’s claims were insufficiently plead. The Board noted that there were a “myriad” of technical issues and that although the government’s “factual defense may prevail at the hearing,” it was inappropriate for the Board to decide it on a motion for partial dismissal.
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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
