Was a $383,600 award to former Interior Department employee Robert Berman legal? A federal appeals court ruling last week didn't answer that question, but it did reject a jury's earlier decision that it was not legal.

The story of the award began in 1994, when Berman, a senior economist at Interior who has since retired, began helping the Project on Government Oversight draft Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain information on oil and gas companies that were underpaying royalties to the Minerals Management Service for drilling on federal and Indian lands.

POGO in 1997 sued the 15 largest oil and gas companies under the False Claims Act for defrauding the government; the settlement netted the government $440 million. For its part, POGO received $1.2 million.

POGO and Berman had agreed that he would get one-third of whatever money POGO received for its part in the lawsuit, and in 1998 POGO gave Berman a $383,600 check for his "decade-long public-spirited work to expose and stop the oil companies' underpayment of royalties."

Five years later, the government sued Berman and POGO, saying he had received compensation for doing his official job duties. The Justice Department persuaded a district court in 2003 that it didn't matter whether POGO or Berman intended for the award to be compensation for doing his official job duties, and the jury found them civilly liable.

But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled Aug. 3 that intent is a required element of violating the law that forbids federal employees from receiving, or other parties from giving, money as compensation for doing the employees' official job duties.

The court said the jury should have been told to consider intent as a requirement when deciding whether Berman and POGO had violated the law. The case will be sent back to the district court — with instructions to consider intent — and a new trial could be held.

POGO said that the district court's decision to ignore intent severely limited the organization's and Berman's defense, and prevented them from even using the word "whistle-blower."

"This unanimous court decision, on the heels of reforms at MMS, is such welcome news," POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian said in a statement. "We hope this is the final chapter of this ordeal."

POGO General Counsel Scott Amey said he believes the government's suit was in retaliation for Berman's whistle-blowing, since many other federal employees receive awards with cash prizes — such as the Service to America Medals — every year for their work and are not sued or prosecuted.

Amey said the appeals court's decision in this case would make it tougher for the government to pursue similar lawsuits or prosecutions in the future.