Naval Architect Says 4th Circ. Got No-Poach Ruling Right 

November 24, 2025

A former naval engineer accusing shipbuilders of conspiring to suppress industry wages has told the U.S. Supreme Court that their petition for review of a Fourth Circuit decision reviving her proposed class action rests on a rule the panel never adopted. 

Susan Scharpf said in a brief Friday that although General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls and other shipbuilders argued the panel adopted a rule under which Scharpf’s mere claim that their alleged no-poach deal is unwritten is enough to establish fraudulent concealment and delay the statute of limitations, the Fourth Circuit didn’t do so. 

“Instead, it applied a factbound, consensus standard under which: (a) affirmative acts to cover up an antitrust conspiracy can be sufficient to allege fraudulent concealment; and (b) a wide range of conduct can be evidence of an affirmative cover up, including efforts to conceal evidence and avoid a paper trail,” Scharpf said. 

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The case stems from a proposed class action by former naval engineers and architects, Scharpf and Anthony D’Armiento, who accuse General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls and 18 other companies of suppressing industry wages by illegally scheming for decades to not actively recruit, or poach, each other’s employees. The suit, filed in Virginia federal court in 2023, aims to represent a class of people employed by the companies as naval architects, marine engineers, or both, from Jan. 1, 2000. 

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The proposed class is represented by Brent W. Johnson, Steven J. Toll, Robert W. Cobbs, Alison S. Deich, Zachary R. Glubiak, Sabrina S. Merold and Callie C. Bruzzone of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, Deepak Gupta and Thomas Scott-Railton of Gupta Wessler LLP, Shana E. Scarlett, Rio S. Pierce, Steve W. Berman, Kevin K. Green and Elaine T. Byszewski of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, George F. Farah, Nicholas J. Jackson and Simon A. Wiener of Handley Farah & Anderson PLLC, Candice J. Enders and Julia R. McGrath of Berger Montague, and Brian D. Clark, Stephen J. Teti, Arielle S. Wagner and Eura Chang of Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP. 

Read Naval Architect Says 4th Circ. Got No-Poach Ruling Right .