by bvernia | October 23rd, 2009
In an October 19 opinion, District Judge Michael Anello dismissed a qui tam without leave to amend, for failing to plead fraud with particularity. The relator, a former employee of a Raytheon subcontractor, had alleged that the subcontractor had hired, with Raytheon’s knowledge, unskilled employees lacking security clearances to perform testing of electronic systems on a fleet of battleships. Judge Anello concluded that the allegations of the second amended complaint regarding false claims and false records were conclusory, that changes made from the relator’s prior complaint were largely cosmetic, and that leave to amend would be futile.
The relator was represented by Mark Labaton of the Los Angeles office of Kreindler & Kreindler and Jimmy Ayers of Scudi, Johnson & Ayers in San Diego; on the defense side, Brian Cruz and James Gallagher of McKenna Long & Aldridge in Los Angeles represented Raytheon, and Jeremy Horowitz, Mary Snider and Leonid Zilberman of San Diego’s Wilson Turner Kosma represented the subcontractor, San Diego Services, Inc.
