Jewell reported to his Manager, Doug McGraw, that MacKenzie was forging signatures and backdating documents. (Id. ¶ 29.) Instead of stopping MacKenzie from continuing to forge client signatures and backdate documents, which were submitted to the government for reimbursement, McGraw told MacKenzie that Jewell had reported this conduct. (Id. ¶ 30-32.) After learning that Jewell had told McGraw about his forging signatures and backdating documents, MacKenzie began yelling at Jewell, calling Jewell names and making fun of Jewell. (Id. ¶ 33, 34.) On one occasion, MacKenzie threw a heavy regulator at Jewell, which missed
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him. (Id. ¶ 35, 36.) Jewell reported MacKenzie’s behavior to McGraw, but McGraw failed to respond and MacKenzie’s disrespectful behavior continued. (Id. ¶ 38, 39.) In October 2009, Jewell again reported to McGraw that MacKenzie was continuing to forge client signatures and backdate documents. (Id. ¶ 40.) During this conversation McGraw told Jewell that he had confronted MacKenzie about Jewell’s allegations and warned MacKenzie against forging client signatures and backdating documents in the future. (Id. ¶ 42.) McGraw also told Jewell that he did not want to know about any forging of signatures or backdating of documents and that the whole office would be shut down and all employees would lose their jobs if word got out. (Id. ¶ 44, 45.)
On November 16, 2009, Jewell was called into a meeting with McGraw and MacKenzie and was told that he was being terminated due to failure to complete his Hazardous Material (“Haz Mat”) paperwork for the last day he had worked. Id. ¶ 48, 49. Jewell in fact had completed his Haz Mat paperwork. Id. ¶ 50. Jewell alleges he was terminated because he had reported to McGraw that MacKenzie had forged client signatures and backdated documents. Id. ¶ 51, 52, 55-59.
On May 12, 2011, Jewell filed the pending suit against his former employer, Lincare, Inc., alleging violations of the federal False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. § 3730(h) (Count I), and the Maine Human Rights Act, 5 M.R.S.A. § 4551 et seq., and the Maine Whistleblowers’ Protection Act, 26 M.R.S.A. § 831 et seq. (Count II).
