Enough Is Enough! Supreme Court Puts an End to 18-Year FCA Litigation

More than 18 years since the original qui tam complaint was filed, one of the longest-running FCA cases in history, U.S. ex rel. Purcell v. MWI Corp., came to an end in favor of defendant MWI, represented by C&M, when the Supreme Court on January 9, 2017, denied the relator’s petition for certiorari. The Supreme Court’s order caps MWI’s success on appeal, with the D.C. Circuit overturning a jury verdict against MWI on the grounds that the FCA’s scienter/knowledge element cannot be established when a defendant reasonably interprets an ambiguous regulation.