Federal Agency Supports Whistle-Blower’s Case

The U.S. Department of Justice is supporting a Reseda woman’s appeal of a whistle-blower case she filed against Litton Industries Inc.

Justice Department officials, in a brief filed last month on behalf of Mary Ann Rohan, said they were concerned that a federal court’s dismissal of the case in February might jeopardize other whistle-blower cases, which are formally filed under the False Claims Act.

The government has an interest in Rohan’s suit “to the extent that any adverse rulings” in such cases “may affect FCA actions in which the government has intervened, or which it is pursuing independently,” the agency’s brief stated.

Rohan’s lawyer, Louis J. Cohen, said he was “pleased that they filed the brief,” but said the Justice Department is “not doing this for me; they’re doing it for themselves.”

Rohan, a former accounting clerk at Litton’s Guidance and Control Systems division in Woodland Hills, filed her suit in early 1991, alleging that Litton knew or should have known about an embezzlement scheme by another worker. The worker, Robert J. Newbert of Canoga Park, later pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements and admitted embezzling more than $200,000 from the company.

But in February, a federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed Litton from the lawsuit, saying not enough evidence was provided to show that Litton knew about the scheme. Rohan, whose suit sought $21 million in damages from Litton, appealed the case in April.