In a long-running case that has been to the U.S. Supreme Court and back, a federal trial court has dismissed a lawsuit brought under the federal False Claims Act (FCA) alleging that a company knowingly submitted false VETS-100 reports. In granting the company’s motion for summary judgment, the court concluded that the plaintiff simply did not present any evidence that the company intended to violate its VETS-100 filing obligations.
The ruling in Kirk v. Schindler, 05-Cv-2917 (S.D.N.Y. September 10, 2015), which the trial court acknowledged “has had a long and tortuous history,” may finally put to rest a case that had implications for all employers that are required to meet the annual reporting requirements of the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (“VEVRAA”), as amended.
The court rejected all of the arguments that the plaintiff had raised to support his FCA claims, including the argument that an absence of a formal written procedure for collecting and tracking veteran status of employees demonstrated that the company knew its VETS-100 reports were false. Dismissing this argument as “baseless,” the court found that there was no statutory or regulatory requirement that contractors have written procedures as to how they collect and track their employees’ veteran status.
A copy of the court’s decision in Schindler is available on EEAC’s website.