Thomas Berg v. Honeywell International

MEMORANDUM

In this qui tam action under the False Claims Act (FCA), Thomas Berg and three other plaintiffs (collectively, “the Rela-tors”) allege that Honeywell, Inc. (“Honeywell”) knowingly submitted fraudulent energy baseline estimates to induce the U.S. Army to contract with it to overhaul the energy production system at Fort Richardson, Alaska. The Relators appeal from the district court’s dismissal of their action, which dismissed their First Amended Complaint (FAC) and denied their motion for leave to amend the complaint. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

1. The district court did not err in concluding that the FAC fails to plead Honeywell’s alleged fraud with sufficient particularity to satisfy Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b). The FAC does not provide enough “particularized supporting detail” to put Honeywell on notice of the specific conduct it must defend. Bly-Ma-gee v. California, 236 F.3d 1014 , 1018 (9th Cir.2001). The FAC generally alleges that Honeywell knowingly falsified its calculations of existing “baseline” energy costs at Fort Richardson and fraudulently projected savings it knew it could…