Morrison Mahoney Partner Ted Murphy recently secured three appellate victories for our client, the prime designer and builder of the nation’s submarine fleet. Two wins were before a federal administrative appeals court based in Washington, D.C. and the third was before the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In the first case, the court upheld a defense verdict in a wrongful death case that Ted previously tried under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Act.
The second case was on appeal for the second time. In the initial appeal, the court vacated summary judgment in favor of our client on a complex causation issue. On remand, the trial judge entered summary judgment in plaintiff’s favor, prompting Ted’s appeal. A 3-judge panel agreed with Ted’s argument that the trial judge misconstrued its first ruling and remanded the case for further findings, which resulted in the dismissal of plaintiff’s case.
The third case involved a claim by Medicare’s Commercial Repayment Contractor (“CRC”) for recovery of medical bills that it paid for one of our client’s retirees with a compensable claim under the Longshore Act. In 2020, Ted successfully challenged the CRC’s demand and the Qualified Independent Contractor (“QIC”) dismissed the claim. Nearly three years later, the CRC issued a “redetermination decision,” amending its the initial claim to include additional medical expenses and filing a forfeiture notice with the U.S. Treasury. Ted asserted, and the QIC agreed, that the re-determination was untimely based the CRC’s own regulations and standards. It dismissed the CRC’s claim on that basis and vacated the forfeiture on file with the Treasury Department.
