Los Angeles, Calif., Jul 6, 2010 / 04:08 am
A federal appellate court has reinstated a whistleblower’s lawsuit against Planned Parenthood affiliates in California charging that the organizations overbilled the state and federal governments more than $180 million for birth control drugs. Supporters of the suit were “elated” by the unexpected favorable ruling.
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, the affiliates’ state political action organization, is also named in the suit.
In its July 1 decision, a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously reversed a lower court’s ruling that the whistleblower did not have standing to bring the lawsuit, the California Catholic Daily reports. The court remanded the case for further proceedings.
Previously, U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz ruled that the whistleblower Victor Gonzalez, former vice-president for finance and administration of Planned Parenthood-Los Angeles, did not qualify as a whistleblower under federal law because he was not the “original source” of information exposing the alleged fraud.