U.S. ex rel. DePace v. Cooper Health Sys. (Summary)

FALSE CLAIMS ACT

U.S. ex rel. DePace v. Cooper Health Sys., Civil Action No. 08-5626 (JEI/AMD) (D. N.J. Apr. 22, 2013)

The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey held that a qui tam relator owed his lawyer fees and costs from a contingency fee agreement between the relator and the law firm, as well as the statutory fees and costs under a settlement agreement among the federal government, the relator, and the defendant health system, among others.

The relator initiated the qui tam action against a health system and hospital and retained a law firm to assist him, with which he entered into a contingency fee agreement and which stated that the contingency fees would be in addition to any statutory attorney’s fees and costs.  When the qui tam suit was ultimately settled by the health system, the settlement agreement required the health system to pay the law firm’s statutory fees and costs.  Thereafter, the physician balked at paying additional fees and costs under the contingency fee agreement.

The court found that the settlement agreement did not supersede the contingency fee agreement, since the documents did not cover the same topic.  The contingency fee agreement governed what the physician must pay the law firm, while the settlement agreement governed what the health system would be required to pay under the fee shifting provisions of the False Claims Act.