Only employers can be sued for retaliation under the False Claims Act, according to a recent decision from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed a lower court's dismissal of a retaliation claim against several individual defendants, according to The National Law Review.
In Howell v. Town of Ball, a police officer in Ball, La., filed a retaliation suit under the False Claims Act against the town and several town officials. At the district court level, the town officials argued the police officer only had a cause of action against his employer, the town, under the False Claims Act. The court agreed, citing a False Claims Act subsection that creates a cause of action for those who have been "discriminated against in the terms and conditions of employment…," according to the report.
On appeal, the plaintiff argued liability was extended to non-employer defendants in 2009 with an amendment to the False Claims Act that removed reference to "employer" in a subsection of the act. However, the appeals court disagreed, holding that reference to "employer" was deleted in the subsection to expand the class of False Claims Act plaintiffs to include "agents" and "contractors," rather than to broaden the class of viable defendants, according to the report.
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