Sources: McCormack Suny LLC, Boston; Commonwealth of Massachusetts Suffolk Superior Court; CP staff
Honoring a motion for summary judgment, Suffolk Superior Court has dismissed a five-year-old case where two whistleblowers asserted that Tresca Brothers Concrete, Sand & Gravel Inc. violated the Massachusetts False Claims Act by providing inaccurate age and water content information on ready mixed orders. Acting on behalf of 45 municipalities, charter schools and state agencies, plaintiffs also claimed that the Millis, Mass. producer had failed to pay prevailing wages for drivers on public project deliveries.
Tresca Brothers counsel McCormack Suny notes that the case is one of few ever dismissed on summary judgment in the history of the Commonwealth’s false claims statute, while “the decision makes numerous new points of law on key issues such as intent to defraud and the materiality of alleged misrepresentations. The Court drew on the wide range of published decisions under the Federal False Claims Act, with broad implications for the national construction industry, making it much more likely that anyone participating in a public construction project will be protected from liability associated with potential similar future claims.” The decision followed four years of litigation and a wide-ranging Massachusetts Attorney’s Generals Office False Claims Division investigation where Tresca Concrete was exonerated on all charges.
“Our firm has handled false claims cases on behalf of both whistleblowers and defendants, and while preventing government fraud is a key issue which we completely support, this case sought to question well-established construction practices that municipal customers benefit from,” says Managing Partner David Suny. “We were very pleased to see that the Court recognized that, and rejected the whistleblowers’ claims.”