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Federal Civil Procedure - Judgments - Use Of Federal Rule 60(B)(6) To Adjust Forfeitures Downward, Cecil R. Mellin

Michigan Law Review

Defendant gained eight thousand dollars through thirty false cotton loan notes submitted to and paid by a government agency. The United States instituted a civil action under the False Claims Act, which provides that persons committing the prohibited acts shall pay to the United States a two-thousand-dollar forfeiture for each violation plus double the amount of damages sustained by the United States in the transactions. Judgment totalling sixty thousand dollars, or two thousand dollars on each of thirty false notes, was awarded the United States. On defendant's motion to vacate the judgment under federal rule 60 (b) (6) on the …