United States ex rel. Oliver v. Parsons Co.

ORDER AND AMENDED OPINION

ORDER

The opinion filed July 19,1999, is hereby amended as follows:

At slip opinion 8102, at the end of the sentence that begins, “Their meaning is ultimately the subject of judicial interpretation,” add the following as footnote 2:

At slip opinion page 8103, add the following section at the end of section III. A. 3. as subsection 4:

4.

In a petition for rehearing, Parsons argues that our decision breaks from previous authority in this circuit on the issue of whether a reasonable interpretation precludes falsity, citing United States ex rel. Lindenthal v. General Dynamics Corp., 61 F.3d 1402 (9th Cir.1995) and United States ex rel. Hochman v. Nachman, 145 F.3d 1069 (9th Cir.1998). These cases are inap-posite. Lindenthal did not involve the interpretation of a federal regulation but instead involved the interpretation of a contract between General Dynamics and the federal government. Id. at 1411. Because a term of the contract was held to be ambiguous, the court held that the parties’ intent was relevant extrinsic evidence, and the court then used that evidence to inform the court’s interpretation of the contract. “We agree that extrinsic evidence…