N.Y.C. Admin. Code § L.L. 2005/053: L.L. 2005/053

Enactment date: 5/19/2005

Int. No. 630

By Council Members Yassky, the Speaker (Council Member Miller), Perkins, Moskowitz, Clarke, Koppell, Liu, Nelson, Recchia Jr., Stewart, Weprin, Gennaro and Brewer

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to creating civil penalties and a private right of action for false or fraudulent claims.

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Legislative findings and intent. The city of New York engages in annual disbursements of billions of dollars in public funds through one of the largest budgets in the United States, and is, therefore, desirous of preventing the payment of fraudulent claims by the city at taxpayers' expense. Compensation by the city of claims that are false or fraudulent has a considerable impact upon the city's treasury through the loss of untold amounts of public dollars.

The federal false claims act provides an excellent model for combating fraud by government contractors and other parties. Since the federal false claims act was substantially amended in 1986, the federal government has recovered billions of dollars under the act. Additionally, a number of states have enacted civil false claims statutes of their own in order to impede fraud in state programs and to protect state treasuries.

The Council therefore finds that the city of New York should enact legislation modeled on the federal false claims act, to enhance the city's ability to recover monetary damages from parties who file fraudulent claims for payment of city funds and to recover the substantial costs that are incurred in protecting the taxpayers against such fraud.

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[Consolidated provisions are not included in this Appendix A]

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§ 3. Severability. If any provision of this local law is adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment will not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder thereof, but will be confined in its operation to the provision thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment was rendered.

§ 4. This local law shall take effect 90 days after it shall have been enacted into law, shall apply to claims filed or presented prior to, on or after such date, and shall remain in effect until the first day of June, 2012 when it shall be deemed repealed; provided, however, that such expiration date shall not apply to any civil enforcement action brought pursuant to section 7-804 of the administrative code of the city of New York that was commenced prior to such date but has not by such date reached a final disposition.