181022P.pdf   02/11/2019  Stephanie Strubbe  v.  Crawford Co. Memorial Hospital
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  18-1022
   U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa - Sioux City   
   [PUBLISHED] [Benton, Author, with Beam and Erickson, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil case - False Claims Act. In qui tam action alleging the defendant 
   hospital submitted false claims for Medicare reimbursements and made false 
   statements or report to get fraudulent claims paid, the district court did 
   not err in dismissing the claims under Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b) because they 
   were not pleaded with sufficient particularity; with respect to 
   plaintiffs' claims that the defendant hospital retaliated against them, 
   the district court properly dismissed the claims for individual liability 
   against the hospital's chief executive officers as the False Claims Act 
   does not impose individual liability for retaliation claims; with respect 
   to plaintiffs Christie and Trader, the district court did not err in 
   dismissing their retaliation claims because even assuming they engaged in 
   protected activity, their retaliation claims failed to state a plausible 
   claim because they did not adequately plead that the defendant hospital 
   knew they were engaging in a protected activity; with respect to plaintiff 
   Strube's retaliation claim, she cannot prove that her termination was 
   solely motivated by protected activity; even if the facts suggested that 
   her removal was solely motivated by her protected conduct, the defendant 
   hospital provided a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for her 
   termination and she could not show the termination was pretextual. Judge 
   Beam, dissenting in part and concurring in part.