Fourth Circuit Refines Rockwell Public Disclosure Bar Analysis

In US ex rel. Beauchamp v. ACADEMI Training Center, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently vacated dismissal of a False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam suit on the ground that the trial court improperly applied the Supreme Court's holding in Rockwell International Corp. v. United States, 549 US 457 (2007). Rockwell held that in qui tam suits where relators allege new claims of fraud in amended complaints, courts should look to the date of the amended complaint to determine the applicability of the public disclosure bar under 31 USC §3730(e)(4).

This holding is occasionally referred to as the last-pleading rule, because the Rockwell relator's last amended complaint contained the first instance of an alleged fraud that was being challenged under the public disclosure bar. The Fourth Circuit found in Beauchamp that the trial court's dismissal misconstrued the Supreme Court's reasoning and led to an erroneous mechanical application of the Rockwell holding.