Attorneys for Honeywell International Inc. are contending that Justice Department attorneys failed to hand over documents in a false claims suit against the company and they are accusing the lawyers of misconduct.
In a motion filed in federal court Wednesday, lawyers for Honeywell accused the DOJ of withholding “critical” evidence – a delay that amounts to misconduct, they say – and asked a judge to sanction prosecutors for supporting “inaccurate and misleading” testimony regarding claims that it used defective materials in body army purchased by the government, Bloomberg reported.
“We believe the Department of Justice has violated federal discovery rules by failing to properly search for, produce and preserve evidence that would exonerate Honeywell,” Honeywell spokesman Peter Dalpe told Bloomberg in an email. “We continue to believe there is no factual or legal basis for the Justice Department claims, and we will continue to vigorously defend ourselves.”
The Honeywell case springs from a 1998 claim that the company allegedly knew the “Zylon Shield material” used in body armor sold to the government degraded “quickly over time,” particularly in hot and humid conditions, and failed to notify the government about the problem.
But from October 2010 through April, Honeywell claims the government discovered 120,000 additional documents relating to the armor sale. Some of those documents show the company informed the government about the problem, asked for guidance on how to test the vests, and repeatedly offered to share test data and technical expertise with the government, Honeywell said in court documents.
The material used in the vests was manufactured by Armor Holdings Inc., which has since ceased production and was purchased by European-arms company BAE Systems plc in 2007. In 2008, Armor Holdings agreed to pay $30 million to resolve allegations regarding the vests.
