United States v. United States Ex Rel. Thornton

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:

This appeal presents the issue of how to value a False Claims Act settlement when the settlement includes both cash and released claims against the government. The government appeals the district court’s determination that the award of the qui tam relator, Peter Thornton, should be calculated using both the cash value of the settlement and the court’s estimate of the value of the defendants’ released contractual claims against the government. We conclude that ordinarily the value of such released claims shall be added to any cash paid to the government…