Court Opinion

ID: 9578926
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:49:40.111759+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:38.724913
License: Public Domain

McKEAGUE, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the majority and its analysis of Poteet’s complaint under the public disclosure rule. However, I do not agree with the majority’s further (and entirely unnecessary) discussion of the inapplicability of the first-to-file rule. Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that the first-to-file rule only bars subsequent complaints filed after a complaint that itself is not barred by the public disclosure rule, Campbell, United States ex rel. v. Redding Med. Ctr., 421 F.3d 817, 825 (9th Cir.2005), I do not believe that the record in this case provides a sufficient factual basis for concluding that Doe did not qualify as an “original source,” 31 U.S.C. § 3730(e)(4)(B), and thus that the Doe complaint itself was barred by the public disclosure rule. Accordingly, I would affirm the district court’s dismissal of Poteet’s complaint on the basis of the public disclosure rule alone.