U.S. Lawsuit Against Lance Armstrong Will Continue, Judge Rules
Lance Armstrong and his attorneys attempted to have the $100 million lawsuit against them by the U.S. government for falsely claiming he was clean while being sponsored by the United States Postal Service dismissed. A judge has ruled against the dismissal claim and will allow the lawsuit to continue.
Judge Robert Watkins released an 81 page ruling on Thursday outlining his decision to allow the case to continue. Lance Armstrong’s attorneys attempted to use statute of limitations as reason for dismissal of the $100 million court case.
However, Watkins concluded:
“There could possibly be documents in the government’s possession suggesting that it had reason to know the cycling team was doping, despite the findings of the investigation by the French authorities,” Wilkins wrote. “If so, there may be force to the defendants’ argument that the government should have conducted its own investigation sooner, and that if it had undertaken such an investigation, it would have uncovered doping. But the Court cannot make that determination based on the present record and based solely on the allegations in the complaint, as required when ruling on a motion to dismiss. Accordingly, the Court denies without prejudice, the defendants’ motion to dismiss the government’s action as time-barred.”
The government’s case is that the USPS would not have paid out over $40 million to sponsor the team over six years between 1998 and 2004 if they knew that members of the team had used performance enhancing materials to win races, which would have violated the contract between the USPS and the racing team.
Lance Armstrong’s attorneys claim that the six year statute of limitations had run out because Lance Armstrong did not admit, or get caught with, performance enhancing drugs until 2013 when he admitted it on the Oprah Winfrey show. However, the U.S. government initiated the lawsuit against Lance Armstrong in 2010 under seal as part of the Floyd Landis suit.
Floyd Landis, a government whistle blower, stands to make up to 25% of the court’s ruling, if it rules in favor of the U.S. government.
The government wants to get this trial underway, asking that Lance Armstrong and other parties testify in pre-trial depositions this month, however that was pending Judge Watkins’ ruling. As part of the ruling, Watkins states that the parties should submit a schedule for pre-trial depositions to the court within 20 days.
Lance Armstrong has been hit with failure after failure regarding this and other trials. The world is waiting to see what kind of reparations will have to be made by Lance Armstrong to those he has misguided.
