On March 2, 2017, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York applied the materiality standard announced by the Supreme Court of the United States in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar to dismiss a relator’s complaint because the relator, a former managing director of Moody’s, failed to plead materiality as a matter of law.

In United States ex rel. Kolchinsky v. Moody’s Corp., the district court had previously dismissed with prejudice four of five categories of claims, and dismissed without prejudice the relator’s “Ratings Delivery Service” claim, i.e., that Moody’s provided inaccurate ratings directly to subscribers, including government agencies.  In his Second Amended Complaint, the relator attempted to cure the pleading defects of Ratings Delivery Service claim in a “124-page tome,” but to no avail. (more…)