Defendants argue that the Court should adopt Judge Senter’s interpretation of Rockwell and require Branch to prevail at a trial limited to the 27 Exemplar Properties before allowing Branch to obtain discovery concerning other properties…No court has ever interpreted Rockwell to mean that a relator who alleges a long-running scheme has to have direct and independent knowledge of every individual instance of that scheme…
The Branch Opposition alone is 58-pages and there is much more to cover about Rockwell along with a little scienter, a lot about the NFIP, and a ding-a-ling of an idea for a “bellwether trial”
By definition, a bellwether is an indicator of trends. The term originated from the practice of tying a bell around the neck of a wether (a castrated male sheep) to induce other sheep in a flock to follow the belled-wether…Courts utilize a bellwether approach when large numbers of plaintiffs are proceeding on the same theory or claim and there is no other feasible way for the courts to handle the enormous caseload.
Not only is there is a feasible way to handle the Branch qui tam case – the statistical sampling proposed by Branch that is the litigation standard for identifying fraud in federally funded insurance programs – there’s something slightly creepy about proposing a bifurcation procedure involving a wether to Magistrate Shushan.
Suggesting such a proposed bifurcation models Judge Senter’s decision in Rigsby is really over the top – so is Fidelity’s claim there was no scienter involved in the Company’s adjustment of the Exemplary Property at 2625 & 2627 General Pershing. Continue reading “Branch Consultants file Rock(well) solid opposition to Protective Order – explain why Walker’s Order won’t protect State Farm’s a$$ in Rigsby qui tam”