Statute Of Limitations Invalidates Government Claim For The First Time
Client Alert | 1 min read | 12.18.09
For apparently the first time, the Contract Disputes Act's six-year statute of limitations has been judicially enforced to defeat a government claim. In McDonnell Services, Inc.(Dec. 2, 2009), the ASBCA dismissed the government's argument that its claims should be treated more generously than contractors' claims under the CDA statute of limitations and went on to rule that an Air Force Contracting Officer's final decisions were time-barred and a "nullity" because DCAA and the Air Force, through a series of audit reports beginning as early as 1998, "had established the basis for" the government's defective pricing claim, including putative damages, "well before, and definitely not later than" six years before the CO's June 2008 final decisions.
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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
