Judge William Skretny
Qui tam relator Osmose Inc. claimed defendants Chemical Specialties Inc. and Viance LLC violated the False Claims Act by selling a defective fire retardant chemical to wood treating companies, who then presented fraudulent claims for payment by the United States for fire retardant treated wood and plywood products. District court granted defendants dismissal, finding that Osmose did not state a claim under 31 USC §3729(a)(1)(A) or (a)(1)(B) with the particularity required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b). Osmose did not allege that defendants presented any fraudulent claims directly to the government. Nor did it show that facts regarding sale of fire retardant wood and plywood to the government were peculiarly within defendants’ knowledge. Absent a specific allegation that a distributor treated the wood sold to the government with defendants’ product in accordance with their instructions on the mistaken belief that, in doing so, the treated wood would be code compliant and then marketed it to the government based on that fact, there was no basis to find that defendants “knowingly made or caused to be made, a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim” for fire retardant wood or plywood.
