United States, ex rel. Muge Cody v. ManTech International Corporation

In Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc., 530 U.S. 133 (2000), the Court articulated standards for reviewing an appellate court’s reversal of a jury verdict under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(b). The Court emphasized that in reviewing a motion for judgment as a matter of law “the court should review all the evidence … and the court must draw all favorable inferences in favor of the non-moving party, and it may not make credibility determinations or weigh the evidence.” The question presented is whether the appellate court erred in not applying the Reeves standards in a case brought under the False Claims Act and the Defense Contractor Whistleblower Protection Act and erred in reversing the jury verdict in favor of Muge Cody and subsequently reversing the trial court’s denial of the employer’s Rule 50 motion for a judgment as a matter of law.