The First Circuit sits in Boston. Which when Blawgletter went to law school called itself "The Hub". As in "Hub of the Universe". Which we found charming. Also troubling.

True, though? Kinda.

Today the court that sits in the Hub held that a qui tam — False Claims Act — claim about Harvard Medical School and others should have gotten beyond a summary judgment motion. The panel said:

The dispute at the heart of this case is not about resolving which scientific protocol produces results that fall within an acceptable range of "accuracy." Nor is it about whether Killiany's re-measurements, the basis for the preliminary scientific conclusions reported in the Application, are "accurate" insofar as they fall within a range of results accepted by qualified experts. Rather, the essential dispute is about whether Killiany falsified scientific data by intentionally exaggerating the re-measurements of the EC to cause proof of a particular scientific hypothesis to emerge from the data, and whether statements made in the Application about having used blinded, reliable methods to produce those results were true. If the jury should find that statements in the Application are false, they must also determine whether those statements were material and whether the Defendants acted knowingly in violating the FCA.

Because we conclude that genuine issues of material fact remain on these central issues, we vacate the district court's order and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Costs are awarded to the appellant.

So ordered.

United States ex rel. Jones v. Brigham & Women's Hospital, No. 10-2301, slip op. 50-51 (1st Cir. May 7, 2012).