Duane Morris Class Action Review - 2023 - Report - Page 169
instances of undocumented time had explanations, such as hours being inadvertently
recorded on the wrong day. Id. at *12. The court rejected these arguments. It held that it
was unpersuaded by the defendants’ argument that the 21 instances were insufficient to
show violations beyond substantial compliance. Id. at *13-14. The court also observed
that timesheets in the record were too uniform, as they were written in pencil and there
was no variation. Id. at *16-17. Accordingly, the court held that the defendants failed to
substantially comply with the preliminary injunction since they maintained false records;
failed to maintain a reliable timekeeping system; and provided false regular rates of pay
on payroll records. Id. at *39-40. Because the defendants were out of compliance, the
court granted the DOL’s motion in part and ordered the appropriate sanctions, including
an award of reasonable attorneys’ fees and investigative costs incurred by the
defendants’ violation of the preliminary injunction, among other compliance-related
sanctions. Id. at *40.
3.
The U.S. Department Of Justice
Similar to the DOL, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) achieved several noteworthy
victories in its government enforcement actions in 2022.
On September 2, 2022, the DOJ announced it reached a $40 million settlement with
Bayer AG to end allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act over three
of its drugs. This headline-grabbing development resulted in the resolution of two
decades-old whistleblower lawsuits entitled United States ex rel. Simpson v. Bayer
Corp., Case No. 05-CV-3895 (D.N.J.), and United States ex rel. Simpson v. Bayer
Corp., Case No. 08-CV-5758 (D. Minn.).
On October 26, 2022, the DOJ announced that Honeywell agreed to pay $3.35 million
to settle a long-running False Claims Act suit over allegedly faulty body armor that was
sold to law enforcement as alleged in United States. v. Honeywell International Inc.,
Case No. 08-CV-961 (D.D.C.). The next day, on October 27, 2022, a health care
staffing company pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada to
charges involving an alleged scheme to suppress the wages of nurses working in Las
Vegas schools. That case, entitled United States v. Hee, Case No. 21-CV-98 (D. Nev.),
represented the DOJ’s first successful prosecution of criminal charges in a labor-side
antitrust case.
In addition to obtaining massive settlements and landmark guilty pleas, in 2022 the DOJ
was active filing new lawsuits. On October 19, 2022, the DOJ announced that it had
filed a lawsuit entitled United States v. Retsel Corp., Case No. 22-CV-5086 (D.S.D.),
against a non-Native-American-owned South Dakota hotel/casino on claims that the
business uses racially discriminatory practices against Native American customers. This
filing suggests that the DOJ is closely monitoring discrimination in the consumer
context.
Among additional noteworthy court rulings from 2022 in DOJ-initiated litigation is United
States v. Rodgers, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65793 (E.D. Tex. Apr. 8, 2022). In that case,
the defendants were charged with: (i) conspiring to fix prices in violation of Section 1 of
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Duane Morris Class Action Review – 2023
