United States of America, Ex Rel., and Leocadio Barajas, and Patricia Meyer v. Northrop Corporation

The question is whether the district court has jurisdiction under the False Claims Act (the Act), 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq., over claims a qui tam plaintiff added to his complaint by amendment based on information disclosed by the United States in a criminal indictment returned after the plaintiff filed the original complaint.

I.

Boeing Corporation selected Northrop Corporation to produce flight data transmitters for Air Force nuclear cruise missiles. Although the transmitters were required to withstand temperatures as low as - 65° Fahrenheit, Northrop allegedly selected a damping fluid that solidified at - 50° Fahrenheit, causing the transmitters to fail, and concealed the failure of the transmitters to meet contract requirements by omitting certain tests, falsifying other tests and test results, failing to inspect incoming components, and submitting false claims, all in violation of 31 U.S.C. § 3729 (a).

Leocadio Barajas is a former Northrop employee who participated in falsifying test results. In early 1987, Barajas met with federal investigators, gave them tapes of falsified tests, and described failures of the transmitters in performance reliability verification tests. In…