Court Opinion

ID: 9403573
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-06-21 15:02:58.575674+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:20:08.066250
License: Public Domain

Case: 23-1124    Document: 38     Page: 1   Filed: 06/06/2023

        NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

   United States Court of Appeals
       for the Federal Circuit
                  ______________________

  SAMUEL J. MAY, DBA SOFT PLANET SYNERGY,
                      LLC,
               Plaintiff-Appellant

                             v.

                    UNITED STATES,
                    Defendant-Appellee
                  ______________________

                        2023-1124
                  ______________________

     Appeal from the United States Court of Federal Claims
 in No. 1:21-cv-01496-CNL, Judge Carolyn N. Lerner.
                  ______________________

                   Decided: June 6, 2023
                  ______________________

    SAMUEL J. MAY, Lehi, UT, pro se.

     KRISTIN ELAINE OLSON, Commercial Litigation Branch,
 Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Wash-
 ington, DC, for defendant-appellee. Also represented by
 BRIAN M. BOYNTON, PATRICIA M. MCCARTHY, DOUGLAS K.
 MICKLE.
                   ______________________

    Before REYNA, TARANTO, and STOLL, Circuit Judges.
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 2                                                  MAY   v. US

 PER CURIAM.
      Samuel May brought the present action against the
 United States in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (Claims
 Court) in June 2021. Central to this action is Mr. May’s
 allegation that his unsuccessful 2010 lawsuit in federal dis-
 trict court against his former employer Amgen, Inc.—
 which Mr. May brought on behalf of the United States un-
 der the False Claims Act—alerted the United States to al-
 leged misconduct by Amgen and thereby helped the United
 States secure a settlement with Amgen in December 2012,
 under which Amgen paid the government more than half a
 billion dollars. In the present action, Mr. May seeks a
 share of the settlement amount, asserting constitutional,
 contract, tort, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims against the
 United States. The Claims Court dismissed the action for
 lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. We affirm, concluding
 that Mr. May’s takings and contract claims are time-barred
 by 28 U.S.C. § 2501 and that his remaining claims are out-
 side the Claims Court’s jurisdiction for substantive reasons
 to the extent that they are not time-barred.
                               I
                              A
     Mr. May was employed from April 2002 until June
 2006 by Amgen, which is not a party to this appeal or to
 the underlying Claims Court case. After suing Amgen in
 California state court for wrongful termination, among
 other things, see Complaint, May v. Amgen, No. SC050255
 (Cal. Super. Ct. Apr. 26, 2007), Mr. May voluntarily dis-
 missed that suit and demanded arbitration for materially
 the same claims in February 2008.
     The arbitrator ruled in favor of Amgen in October 2011,
 and a Colorado state court confirmed the arbitration award
 in March 2012. The federal district court likewise denied
 Mr. May’s petition to vacate or modify the arbitration
 award under the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. §§ 1–16.
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 MAY   v. US                                                  3

 See May v. Amgen, Inc., No. C 12-01367, 2012 WL 2196151
 (N.D. Cal. June 14, 2012). The Ninth Circuit affirmed the
 district court’s judgment, see May v. Amgen, Inc., 564 F.
 App’x 313 (9th Cir. 2014) (per curiam), and the Supreme
 Court denied certiorari, see May v. Amgen, Inc., 574 U.S.
 1193 (2015).
     While the arbitration was pending, on June 11, 2010,
 Mr. May filed a qui tam complaint against Amgen in the
 U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
 under under the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729–3733.
 He alleged that Amgen, among other things, knowingly
 made false statements to the Food and Drug Administra-
 tion (FDA) and knowingly promoted a drug (Aranesp) for
 indications not approved by the FDA. See Complaint ¶ 10,
 United States ex rel. May v. Amgen Inc., No. C10-2577
 (N.D. Cal. June 11, 2010).
     The False Claims Act imposes civil liability on “any
 person who,” among other things, “knowingly presents, or
 causes to be presented,” to the United States “a false or
 fraudulent claim for payment or approval.” 31 U.S.C.
 § 3729(a)(1)(A). An action under the False Claims Act—in
 district court, see 31 U.S.C. § 3732(a)—“may be commenced
 in one of two ways.” Vermont Agency of Natural Resources
 v. United States ex rel. Stevens, 529 U.S. 765, 769 (2000).
 The Attorney General may bring a civil action directly
 against the alleged false claimant, or a private person
 (called the relator) may bring a qui tam civil action against
 the alleged false claimant “in the name of the [g]overn-
 ment.” 31 U.S.C. § 3730(a), (b)(1).
     If a relator brings a qui tam action, the relator must
 serve a copy of the complaint and any supporting evidence
 on the United States, which then has 60 days to decide
 whether it will intervene in the action. Id. § 3730(b)(2), (4).
 If the United States intervenes, then it has “the primary
 responsibility for prosecuting the action,” but the relator
 may continue to participate as a party. Id. § 3730(c)(1). If
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 4                                                   MAY   v. US

 the United States declines to intervene, then the relator
 conducts the action, unless the court permits the United
 States to intervene later for good cause shown. Id.
 § 3730(b)(4)(B), (c)(3). The relator receives a portion of any
 proceeds from the qui tam action: 15–25% if the United
 States intervenes and 25–30% if the United States does not
 intervene. Id. § 3730(d)(1)–(2). See generally Vermont
 Agency of Natural Resources, 529 U.S. at 768–70.
     In Mr. May’s qui tam action, the United States elected
 not to intervene. Eventually, on January 5, 2012, the
 Northern District of California dismissed Mr. May’s qui
 tam suit for failure to prosecute, reasoning that Mr. May
 was proceeding pro se and, in the Ninth Circuit, a pro se
 plaintiff cannot maintain a qui tam action. See Order,
 United States ex rel. May v. Amgen Inc., No. C10-2577
 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 5, 2012) (citing Stoner v. Santa Clara
 County Office of Education, 502 F.3d 1116, 1126–27 (9th
 Cir. 2007)).
                               B
     In December 2012, Amgen settled 10 separate qui tam
 actions brought by relators other than Mr. May. The set-
 tlement agreement memorialized the United States’ con-
 tentions that “Amgen knowingly promoted the sale and use
 of Aranesp for indications,” “dosing, intervals, amounts, or
 regiments” that were “not approved by the [FDA].” U.S.
 Supp. Appx. 339 ¶ G(1)(a). The settlement agreement re-
 quired Amgen to pay about $587.3 million to the United
 States and $24.9 million to certain States (with more to be
 paid under a criminal plea agreement).
     Mr. May, believing that he was entitled to a share of
 the settlement, moved in April 2016 to reopen his qui tam
 action in the Northern District of California. See Plaintiffs’
 Notice of Motion, United States ex rel. May v. Amgen Inc.,
 No. C10-2577 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 28, 2016). The court denied
 the motion because Mr. May still had not retained counsel.
 See Order, United States ex rel. May v. Amgen Inc., No.
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 MAY   v. US                                               5

 C10-2577 (N.D. Cal. July 12, 2016) (citing Stoner, 502 F.3d
 at 1126). Mr. May appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which
 told him that it would dismiss the appeal unless he ob-
 tained counsel within 35 days. See Order, United States ex
 rel. May v. Amgen Inc., No. 16-16394 (9th Cir. Aug. 31,
 2016) (per curiam). Approximately six months later, on
 March 2, 2017, the Ninth Circuit dismissed the appeal be-
 cause Mr. May “ha[d] not obtained counsel.” See Order,
 United States ex rel. May v. Amgen Inc., No. 16-16394 (9th
 Cir. Mar. 2, 2017) (per curiam).
      Eight days later, on March 10, 2017, Mr. May filed a
 new complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of
 Colorado against Amgen, the United States, and several
 federal agencies and officials. See Complaint, United
 States ex rel. May v. United States, No. 17-cv-00637 (D.
 Colo. Mar. 10, 2017). In that complaint, Mr. May asserted
 several contract and tort claims and sought a 25–30% rela-
 tor’s share of the settlement amount. In August 2018, the
 District of Colorado granted Amgen’s motion to dismiss for
 failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted
 and, as for the federal government parties, dismissed the
 contract claims for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and
 granted summary judgment rejecting the tort claims. See
 United States ex rel. May v. United States, No. 17-cv-00637,
 2018 WL 7141426, at *3, *8 (D. Colo. Aug. 29, 2018). The
 Tenth Circuit affirmed. See United States ex rel. May v.
 United States, 839 F. App’x 214 (10th Cir. 2020).
                              C
     On June 15, 2021, Mr. May filed his Claims Court com-
 plaint in the case now before us on appeal. Mr. May as-
 serted in the complaint that, because his original qui tam
 complaint “ultimately facilitated” the United States’ recov-
 ery from Amgen under the 2012 settlement agreement, he
 is entitled to a 25–30% relator’s share of the settlement
 amount. U.S. Supp. Appx. 428 ¶ 37. He asserted breach of
 contract; breach of the implied covenant of good faith and
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 6                                                    MAY   v. US

 fair dealing; professional negligence; a wrong assertedly
 within 42 U.S.C. § 1983; and violations of the First Amend-
 ment, the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause, and the
 Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. U.S.
 Supp. Appx. 430–38.
     The United States moved to dismiss under Claims
 Court Rule 12(b)(1) and (6), and on July 13, 2022, the
 Claims Court dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction.
 See May v. United States, No. 21-1496C, 2022 WL 2717721
 (Fed. Cl. July 13, 2022). The Claims Court concluded first
 that at least the contract and takings claims (and most if
 not all others) were barred by 28 U.S.C. § 2501, which re-
 quires a claim against the United States in the Claims
 Court to be filed within six years of the claim first accruing.
 See id. at *5–6. The Claims Court also concluded that it
 lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over all of Mr. May’s
 claims for substantive reasons, explaining in part that, be-
 cause Mr. May’s claims “rest on his alleged entitlement to
 a relator’s share” of the settlement, the Claims Court would
 be required “to determine whether [Mr. May] ‘had a valid
 qui tam suit under the False Claims Act’”—a determina-
 tion that the Claims Court lacks jurisdiction to make. Id.
 at *6–7 (quoting LeBlanc v. United States, 50 F.3d 1025,
 1030–31 (Fed. Cir. 1995)).
     Mr. May timely sought reconsideration under Claims
 Court Rules 59 and 60, but the Claims Court denied the
 motion on October 27, 2022. Mr. May timely filed a notice
 of appeal on October 31, 2022, invoking our jurisdiction un-
 der 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(3). We dismissed the appeal on De-
 cember 2, 2022, for non-payment of the docketing fee
 required by Federal Circuit Rule 52(a)(1), but when Mr.
 May then paid the docketing fee, we reinstated his appeal.
                               II
      We decide de novo whether the Claims Court had sub-
 ject-matter jurisdiction over Mr. May’s claims in this case,
 in which the jurisdictional issue does not depend on
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 MAY   v. US                                                  7

 findings on contested facts. See Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. v.
 United States, 862 F.3d 1370, 1378 (Fed. Cir. 2017) (citing
 Fidelity & Guaranty Insurance Underwriters, Inc. v.
 United States, 805 F.3d 1082, 1087 (Fed. Cir. 2015)). Mr.
 May bears the burden of establishing the Claims Court’s
 jurisdiction, see Brandt v. United States, 710 F.3d 1369,
 1373 (Fed. Cir. 2013) (citing Taylor v. United States, 303
 F.3d 1357, 1359 (Fed. Cir. 2002)), although we interpret
 pro se plaintiffs’ complaints liberally, see Estelle v. Gamble,
 429 U.S. 97, 106 (1976). We conclude that Mr. May’s Fifth
 Amendment takings claim and his contract claims are
 time-barred by 28 U.S.C. § 2501 and that the Claims Court
 lacks subject-matter jurisdiction for substantive reasons
 over Mr. May’s remaining constitutional, tort, and § 1983
 claims, to the extent that they are not time-barred by
 § 2501.
                               A
      28 U.S.C. § 2501 provides: “Every claim of which the
 [Claims Court] has jurisdiction shall be barred unless the
 petition thereon is filed within six years after such claim
 first accrues.” This six-year statute of limitations is juris-
 dictional, see John R. Sand & Gravel Co. v. United States,
 552 U.S. 130, 133–34 (2008); Alpine PCS, Inc. v. United
 States, 878 F.3d 1086, 1091 (Fed. Cir. 2018) (citing John R.
 Sand & Gravel, 552 U.S. 130): It is not subject to waiver,
 forfeiture, or extension by equitable considerations, such as
 equitable tolling, Young v. United States, 529 F.3d 1380,
 1384 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (citing John R. Sand & Gravel, 552
 U.S. at 132–35); see generally MOAC Mall Holdings LLC v.
 Transform Holdco LLC, 143 S. Ct. 927, 936 (2023) (noting
 consequences of “jurisdictional” status); Wilkins v. United
 States, 143 S. Ct. 870, 875–76 (2023) (same). “Generally, a
 claim against the United States first accrues on the date
 when all the events have occurred which fix the liability of
 the [g]overnment and entitle the claimant to institute an
 action.” Turping v. United States, 913 F.3d 1060, 1064
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 8                                                 MAY   v. US

 (Fed. Cir. 2019) (quoting Bowen v. United States, 292 F.3d
 1383, 1385 (Fed. Cir. 2002)).
     A Fifth Amendment takings claim, in the present con-
 text, has accrued (at least) by the time “the taking action
 occurs”—i.e., when “the government deprives an owner of
 the use of his or her property”—and “the plaintiff knew or
 should have known about the existence” of the govern-
 ment’s action. Petro-Hunt, 862 F.3d at 1378; see Caquelin
 v. United States, 959 F.3d 1360, 1371–72 (Fed. Cir. 2020)
 (taking occurs when government action causes loss of prop-
 erty interest plaintiff would otherwise have had); Memmer
 v. United States, 50 F.4th 136, 145 (Fed. Cir. 2022) (same).
 A breach-of-contract claim, in the present context, ordinar-
 ily accrues when “the alleged breach[] occur[s],” Brighton
 Village Associates v. United States, 52 F.3d 1056, 1060
 (Fed. Cir. 1995), i.e., “when the [alleged] contractor could
 ordinarily demand his money and bring his suit if payment
 was not made,” Lins v. United States, 688 F.2d 784, 787
 (Ct. Cl. 1982) (quoting Nager Electric Co. v. United States,
 368 F.2d 847, 852 (Ct. Cl. 1966)); see also Franconia Asso-
 ciates v. United States, 536 U.S. 129, 142–43 (2002) (“Fail-
 ure by the promisor to perform at the time indicated for
 performance in the contract establishes an immediate
 breach.” (citing Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 235(2)
 (1979))).
     Here, Mr. May alleges that the Amgen–United States
 settlement agreement was a taking of his property and a
 breach of contract by the United States. The alleged taking
 and the alleged breach of contract occurred by December
 2012, when the settlement agreement was executed. Cf.
 Abbas v. United States, 842 F.3d 1371, 1375 (Fed. Cir.
 2016) (“Because his claim is that the 1953 Treaty was a
 taking of his property, and because the treaty went into ef-
 fect in 1953, Mr. Abbas was required to file his takings
 complaint by 1959.”). Mr. May also knew of the settlement
 agreement’s existence by no later than May 1, 2015, the
 date that Mr. May filed a motion for reconsideration in the
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 MAY   v. US                                                 9

 Northern District of California action that ultimately de-
 nied Mr. May’s petition to vacate or modify the original ar-
 bitration award. See May, 2012 WL 2196151, aff’d, 564 F.
 App’x 313 (9th Cir. 2014) (per curiam), cert. denied, 574
 U.S. 1193 (2015). In that May 1, 2015 filing, Mr. May
 stated:
       Amgen settled with the US [g]overnment and ten
       other whistleblowers . . . to terminate all pending
       civil and criminal investigations including Plain-
       tiffs unresolved qui tam claims. Plaintiff Samuel
       May was wholly EXCLUDED even though he was
       also a bonafide original-source qui tam relator and
       PARTY to the settlement at the outset.
 U.S. Supp. Appx. 150 (Mr. May’s May 1, 2015 Motion for
 Leave to File Motion for Reconsideration in N.D. Cal.).
     Mr. May’s Fifth Amendment takings claim and his con-
 tract claims thus accrued no later than May 1, 2015: By
 that date, the alleged taking and breach of contract had oc-
 curred, and Mr. May was aware of the alleged taking and
 breach. See Petro-Hunt, 862 F.3d at 1378. Because Mr.
 May filed his complaint in the Claims Court on June 15,
 2021, more than six years after the date that the takings
 and breach of contract claims first accrued, those claims
 are time-barred by § 2501.
      Mr. May briefly alludes in his complaint to the “contin-
 uing claim doctrine,” U.S. Supp. Appx. 428–29 ¶ 41, a doc-
 trine that, when applicable, “allows [the Claims Court to
 hear] ‘later arising claims even if the statute of limitations
 has lapsed for earlier events,’” Tamerlane, Ltd. v. United
 States, 550 F.3d 1135, 1145 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (quoting Tam-
 erlane, Ltd. v. United States, 80 Fed. Cl. 724, 736 (2008)).
 But “for the continuing claim doctrine to apply, the plain-
 tiff’s claim must be inherently susceptible to being broken
 down into a series of independent and distinct events or
 wrongs, each having its own associated damages.” Brown
 Park Estates-Fairfield Development Co. v. United States,
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 10                                                   MAY   v. US

 127 F.3d 1449, 1456 (Fed. Cir. 1997). Here, Mr. May’s Fifth
 Amendment takings claim and his contract claims are
 based on “a single alleged wrong,” Wells v. United States,
 420 F.3d 1343, 1345 (Fed. Cir. 2005): nonpayment of his
 alleged share of the Amgen–United States settlement
 agreement. “[T]here was a single agreement that was [al-
 legedly] breached on a single occasion,” a circumstance out-
 side the continuing-claims doctrine. Tamerlane, 550 F.3d
 at 1146. 1
     For those reasons, we agree with the Claims Court that
 Mr. May’s Fifth Amendment takings claim and his contract
 claims are time-barred by § 2501.
                               B
     Mr. May’s complaint also alleges other constitutional
 claims (violations of the First Amendment and of a consti-
 tutional right to equal protection of the laws 2), a tort claim
 of professional negligence, and a § 1983 claim. To the ex-
 tent that these claims arise from the Amgen–United States
 settlement agreement, the claims are time-barred for the
 reasons explained above. And to the extent that these
 claims are not time-barred—e.g., to the extent that they

      1   Mr. May calls our attention to the Supreme Court’s
 recent decision in Tyler v. Hannepin County, Minnesota,
 No. 22-166, 2023 WL 3632754 (U.S. May 25, 2023). The
 decision in Tyler, though it involves a takings claim, does
 not involve a statute-of-limitations issue, and it does not
 alter the analysis of the present case.
     2    Although Mr. May invokes the Fourteenth Amend-
 ment’s Equal Protection Clause, that clause does not re-
 strict the federal government. We treat the complaint as
 invoking the Fifth Amendment, which the Supreme Court
 has long held to impose an equal-protection obligation on
 the federal government. See, e.g., Weinberger v. Wiesen-
 feld, 420 U.S. 636, 638 n.2 (1975).
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 MAY   v. US                                              11

 arise from alleged actions by the United States after the
 execution of the Amgen–United States settlement agree-
 ment, see, e.g., U.S. Supp. Appx. 437 ¶ 83 (“Plaintiff May
 . . . is unduly harassed continually [as] a whistle-
 blower/snitch to date.”)—the Claims Court lacks subject-
 matter jurisdiction over the claims for substantive reasons.
     As relevant here, the Claims Court could have subject-
 matter jurisdiction over Mr. May’s claims only if they come
 within the Tucker Act, which confers jurisdiction on the
 Claims Court only over “any claim against the United
 States founded either upon the Constitution, or any Act of
 Congress or any regulation of an executive department, or
 upon any express or implied contract with the United
 States, or for liquidated or unliquidated damages in cases
 not sounding in tort.” 28 U.S.C. § 1491(a)(1). But for a
 plaintiff’s claim to come within the Tucker Act, which does
 not itself provide a cause of action for money damages, the
 “plaintiff must identify a separate source of substantive
 law that creates the right to money damages”—i.e., a so-
 called “money-mandating” source of law for the alleged
 wrong. Fisher v. United States, 402 F.3d 1167, 1172 (Fed.
 Cir. 2005); see Maine Community Health Options v. United
 States, 140 S. Ct. 1308, 1328–29 (2020). At the pleading
 stage, a substantive law is money mandating if the plaintiff
 makes a non-frivolous allegation that the law “can fairly be
 interpreted as mandating compensation by the [United
 States].” United States v. Navajo Nation, 556 U.S. 287, 290
 (2009); see Maine Community, 140 S. Ct. at 1327–28.
     Except for his takings claim, addressed above, Mr. May
 has not alleged a money-mandating provision of the Con-
 stitution. The First Amendment, we have held, does not
 mandate the payment of money for a violation, see United
 States v. Connolly, 716 F.2d 882, 887 (Fed. Cir. 1983); nor
 does the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection, Le-
 Blanc, 50 F.3d at 1028. The Claims Court likewise lacks
 subject-matter jurisdiction over Mr. May’s tort claim be-
 cause tort claims are outside the Tucker Act. See Brown v.
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 12                                                  MAY   v. US

 United States, 105 F.3d 621, 623 (Fed. Cir. 1997) (“[The
 Claims Court] lacks jurisdiction over tort actions against
 the United States.” (citing 28 U.S.C. § 1491(a)(1); Keene
 Corp v. United States, 508 U.S. 200, 214 (1993))).
      Finally, the Claims Court does not have subject-matter
 jurisdiction over Mr. May’s § 1983 claim against the United
 States. That is so at least because he has not made any
 allegation passing the jurisdictional threshold of non-friv-
 olousness, see Shapiro v. McManus, 577 U.S. 39, 45 (2015);
 Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 683 (1946), that the federal gov-
 ernment has committed a wrong “under color of any stat-
 ute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State
 or Territory or the District of Columbia,” 42 U.S.C. § 1983,
 to which § 1983 is limited. Accordingly, there is no juris-
 dictionally adequate allegation that § 1983 is money-man-
 dating as to the United States here. In addition, the
 jurisdictional grant to district courts for much if not all of
 the scope of § 1983, see 28 U.S.C. § 1343, precludes Tucker
 Act jurisdiction at least within that scope. See United
 States v. Bormes, 568 U.S. 6, 12 (2012) (explaining that the
 “Tucker Act is displaced . . . when a law assertedly impos-
 ing monetary liability on the United States contains its
 own judicial remedies”). Mr. May has not identified how,
 if at all, his particular § 1983 claim could avoid that prin-
 ciple.
                              III
      We have considered Mr. May’s remaining arguments
 and find them unpersuasive. For the foregoing reasons, we
 affirm the Claims Court’s dismissal of Mr. May’s complaint
 for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
      No costs.
                         AFFIRMED