Court Holds Independent Contractors with the Department of Navy Fully Covered under Whistleblower Act

On August 6, 2013, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina ruled that independent contractors working for the Department of Navy are covered under the Defense Contractor Whstleblower Protection Act, 10 U.S.C. § 2409. Dr. Kernan Manion, who is represented by Stephen Kohn, is a psychiatrist who retired from private practice and took a job as a healthcare contractor with Nitelines USA Inc. at the Deployment Health Center (DHC) at the Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune.

Dr. Manion alleges that he was illegally fired after he complained to the DHC director, Navy officials and Nitelines about the lack of fundamental protocol for managing psychotic, suicidal, and homicidal patients, as well as the use of non-physician decision-makers regarding fitness for redeployment. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the case. The court ruled that Dr. Manion “sufficiently alleged that he suffered reprisal after making disclosures of what he reasonably believed to be evidence of gross mismanagement of a defense contract as well as evidence of a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety related to a defense contract” and denied the motion to dismiss.

Read the decision.