Royalty and Royalty Interests: Qui Tarn Action

摘要

The facts are gleaned from both the replaced opinion and this opinion. In 1997 and 1998, Jack Grynberg brought a number of qui tarn actions under the False Claims Act (31 U.S.C. § 3729) for alleged underpayment of royalties on carbon dioxide produced from federal and Indian lands. He filed other qui tarn actions based on mismeasurement allegations as well. The carbon dioxide claims are based are alleged undervaluation of the C02. The number of defendants in the C02 litigation is less than 10. In 1966, a small group of royalty owners in the McElmo Dome Field in Colorado had filed a qui tarn action against two of the defendants, Hell and Mobil, although the plaintiffs in that case mentioned, but did not serve, some of the other defendants served in the Grynberg matter. The District Court dismissed the actions under the False Claims Act "first-to-file" rule (31 U.S.C. § 3730(b)(5)) because the 1996 royalty owners' suit had alleged the same essential facts but had not named all of the parties that Grynberg had in this suit The FCA gives to private citizens the right to file a claim on behalf of the United States government for which the private plaintiffs receive a portion of any damages recovered. 31 U.S.C. § 3730. One jurisdictional bar to the filing of a qui tarn action is the public disclosure rule. 31 U.S.C. § 3730(e)(4)(A). Under the public disclosure rule if the subject matter of the qui tarn claim has been publicized so that the plaintiff is not the original source of the underlying claims, a qui tarn action will be barred. A second jurisdictional bar is the "first-to-file" rule which is designed to prevent parasitic or copy-cat qui tarn actions. The court interprets the FCA as not prohibiting a qui tarn action from being filed against different parties that may have been named as defendants in a related qui tarn action. Thus as to the defendnats in the Grynberg action mat were not named defendants in the 1996 royalty owners' action, the qui tarn claims should not have been dismissed.