§4.15 C. Construction Of The Act

• Jurisdiction: New York

C. Construction of the Act

The NY FCA is a rather recent enactment, and to date there is only one reported judicial decision applying this law, State v. DHL Express (USA), Inc.⁴⁵⁹ In that case, a relator filed suit on behalf of the State against a package delivery service alleging that its method of assessing fuel surcharges on package deliveries resulted in false claims to the State. After the New York Attorney General declined to intervene, the relator pursued the qui tam action and the defendant moved to dismiss. The court held that the NY FCA as applied was not preempted by federal airline regulations, that the action was timely, that the plaintiffs had alleged fraud with the detail required by CPLR 3016(b), and that the plaintiffs had adequately stated a claim under the NY FCA. Of particular interest, the court found that DHL’s interpretation of its contract with the state “would cause an unreasonable result, i.e., that the State agreed to a contract authorizing a higher jet fuel surcharge on...