A UNIVERSITY AND FOUR SCIENTISTS MUST PAY FOR PILFERED WORK

Abstract

A Federal judge in Baltimore today ordered the University of Alabama and four of its scientists to pay the Government and a researcher a total of $1.9 million for stealing her work and using it as their own to obtain Federal grants.

The case, decided by a jury, was unusual because the researcher, Dr Pamela A. Berge, an epidemiologist who now works for Pfizer Inc, had gone to court under the Federal False Claims Act, a Civil War-era statute rarely used in cases involving scientific misconduct.

...Officials at Alabama, speaking for the university and the four scientists, said in a statement that the verdict was "not consistent with or supported by the evidence" and would likely be appealed.

The jury found that each of the scientists had individually committed malicious acts of fraud against Dr Berge by claiming her work as his own, by using it to gain grants, and by publishing it in a scientific journal without crediting her. The university was held liable for aiding the fraud. The jury said the Government had been harmed by the fraudulent claims in applications for grants.

The university was ordered to pay $1.66 million, of which Dr Berge's share would be $498 000 and the remainder the Federal Government's. The scientists—Drs Robert F. Pass, Sergio B. Stagno, Charles Alford, and Karen B. Fowler—were ordered to pay collectively $50 000 in compensatory damages to Dr Berge and $215 000 in punitive damages.