Top Defense Results: Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority et al. v. Parsons-Dillingham Metro Rail Construction Manager Joint Venture et al.

False Claims Act

Los Angeles County

Superior Court Judge John Shepard Wiley

Defense attorneys: Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Marcellus A. McRae, James L. Zelenay Jr., Michael M. Lee, Abbey Hudson, Chelsea V. Norell, Katherine H. Sharp, Marysa D. Lin

Plaintiffs' attorneys: Louis J. Cohen PC, Louis J. Cohen; Nossaman LLP, Thomas D. Long, Eric S. Brin

After 18 years of litigation, 13 judges and five trips to the court of appeal, it looked like the big throwdown over Los Angeles' $4 billion Metro Red Line project was over.

But that was 2014, when Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority won $93 million in its breach of contract lawsuit against Parsons-Dillingham Metro Rail Construction Manager Joint Venture.

In 2015, another chapter in the epic battle went the other way.

The county transportation authority was seeking up to $180 million plus fees and costs against Parsons-Dillingham in a False Claims Act case, but Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John Shepard Wiley granted summary judgment to the defendant.

Parsons-Dillingham's lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP crowed that they obtained the defense win last spring even though they'd been on the case for only eight months; the litigation had been ongoing for almost two decades. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority et al. v. Parsons-Dillingham Metro Rail Construction Manager Joint Venture et al., BC150298 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed May 20, 1996).

The transportation authority and a former Parsons-Dillingham employee alleged that Parsons-Dillingham double-billed for supplies.

Gibson Dunn said its defense team closely re-examined the facts and advanced novel arguments, asserting for the first time in the case's long history that if contractually determined rates are at issue, there can be no "false" claims submitted.

In addition, the lawyers argued that vague and ambiguous government contracting regulations cannot underlie a liability claim.

Said Gibson Dunn lead attorney Marcellus A. McRae, "I want to be very exacting in terms of putting the other side to their burden of proof and persuasion, and that means I want to look at everything. If there are four points or four elements, take a microscope to all four."

- John Roemer