United States ex rel. Local 342 Plumbers & Steamfitters v. Dan Caputo Co.

Dan Caputo Co., et al., (“Caputo”) and C.W. Roen Construction Co., et al., (“Roen”) were each sued in separate cases by, respectively, Local Union No. 342 and Local Union No. 38 of the Plumbers and Steamfitters (“the Union”) for failure to pay the prevailing wage rate as required by the Davis-Bacon Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729 (a)(2) and the Copeland Act, 40 U.S.C. §§ 276a and 276c. The suits were brought in the form of claims against Roen and Caputo under the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729 . In each case, the district court gave judgment for the contractor. The Union has appealed, and we have consolidated the appeals. Holding that the Union failed to prove a false claim by either company, we affirm the judgments of the district courts.

FACTS

On May 24, 1993, Caputo was awarded a contract by the Union Sanitary District to perform the expansion of a waste-water treatment plant in Alameda County. The contract was federally financed and governed by Davis-Bacon. Caputo certified compliance with Davis-Bacon, paying workers on piping as Laborers; its subcontractor, D.W. Nicholson Corp., paid such workers as Millwrights.

*928 A jurisdictional dispute existed between the union embracing…