Law360, New York (September 10, 2014, 4:58 PM ET) — A Virginia federal judge has agreed to dismiss a False Claims Act suit accusing Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. of misleading the U.S. Postal Service and failing to meet benchmarks in delivering mail-sorting machines worth $874 million.
U.S. Judge T. S. Ellis III agreed with Northrop’s memorandum that no evidence exists that the company made false statements or omitted material facts, had any intention to mislead the federal government or caused the USPS to pay improper or false invoices.
via Northrop Escapes FCA Suit Over Botched $874M USPS Order – Law360.
Judge’s order:
This matter came before the Court on defendant’s motion for summary judgment (Doc. 170), defendant’s motion to exclude plaintiffs expert witnesses (Doc. 167), and defendant’s motion to strike plaintiffs corrected outline of disputed material facts (Doc. 187), all of which have been fully briefed and argued orally. As part of its submissions to the Court, plaintiff submitted a corrected outline of disputed material facts identical to its list of disputed facts set forth in its opposition memorandum to defendant’s motion for summary judgment. This
submission was untimely, and also did not comply with Local Rule 56(B), as well as the Magistrate Judge’s scheduling order.’
For good cause shown, and for the reasons stated from the Bench, It is ORDERED that defendant’s motion for summary Judgment (Doc. 170) is GRANTED.
It is further ORDERED that defendant’s motion to exclude plaintiffs expert witnesses (Doc. 167) is DENIED AS MOOT, as the result reached here renders it unnecessary to reach or resolve this motion.
It is further ORDERED that defendant’s motion to strike plaintiffs corrected outline of disputed material facts (Doc. 187)is GRANTED, as plaintiffs corrected outlineis a belated and unsuccessful effort to comply with both Local Rule S6(B) and the Magistrate Judge’s scheduling order. Moreover, because plaintiffs corrected outlineofdisputed material facts simply repeats verbatim the facts listed in its earlier submission, plaintiffs corrected outline ofdisputed material facts does not alter the result reached here.
It is further ORDERED that the Clerk is DIRECTED to enter judgment in favor of defendant and against plaintiff pursuant to Rule 58, Fed. R. Civ. P.
Wonder how much $ got wasted on this lawsuit, over something 100% USPS mgmt’s fault anyway.
Of course, there will be no accountability.
These costly FSS machines can’t run a lot of the mail they claimed it would. Now we get pallets of 5 digit flats that that have FSS printed on the mail . These pallets were carrier routed bundles before FSS. So the mailer gets a discount and we to throw each individual piece. Big boondoggle from the start.
They know it is cheaper to let the carriers sort the flats so the morons have to try to recoop some of the money somehow.
Please! Quick! Someone tell us all why this is Obama’s fault.