Alexander Investment v. United States

51 Fed. Cl. 102, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 246, 2001 WL 1555961
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedDecember 5, 2001
DocketNo. 96-325C
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 51 Fed. Cl. 102 (Alexander Investment v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alexander Investment v. United States, 51 Fed. Cl. 102, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 246, 2001 WL 1555961 (uscfc 2001).

Opinion

OPINION and ORDER

HODGES, Judge.

This is a claim for a taking under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs are participants in a government program to encourage the development of low-income housing. They allege that contractual rights to prepay government-insured mortgages on their properties were taken by passage of the Emergency Low Income Housing Preservation Act of 1987 and the Low Income Housing Preservation and Resident Homeownership Act of 1990. Plaintiffs did not have compensable property rights for purposes of the Fifth Amendment because regulations authorizing the program reserved to the Department of Housing and Urban Development the right to amend those regulations at any time. We grant defendant’s motion for summary judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

Congress authorized the Federal Housing Administration through the National Housing Act of 1934, and later the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to insure the mortgages of private developers of low-income housing. National Housing Act, ch. 847, 48 Stat. 1246 (1934) (codified as amended at 12 U.S.C. §§ 1701-1750g (2000)). This enabled private lending institutions to provide low-interest mortgages to developers who would agree to build such housing through a program known as Section 221. 24 C.F.R. § 221.542 (1970). See Cienega Gardens v. United States, 194 F.3d 1231, 1234 (Fed.Cir.1998) (Cienega II).

Developers also could receive interest subsidies on market-rate mortgages through the rental and cooperative housing program for lower income families, known as Section 236. 24 C.F.R. § 236.30 (1970). Under that program, developers would “operate the project in accordance with such requirements with respect to tenant eligibility and rents as the Secretary may prescribe.” Id. The eligibility requirements for Section 236 mortgage insurance are found at 24 C.F.R. § 236.1 (1970).

Both programs involved participation among HUD, a bank or other private lending institution, and the developer or owner. HUD issued a “Commitment for Insurance of Advances” to the bank, guaranteeing its loan to the developer of low-income housing for a term of 40 years subject to the regulations then in effect. The Commitment required the developer to sign a separate “Regulatory Agreement” with HUD. That agreement permitted the Government to regulate “rents, charges, and methods of operation” of the development.

[104]*104The lender and the developer typically executed a mortgage and a secured note at closing.1 HUD would endorse the note and agree to provide mortgage insurance for the lender. The developer executed the Regulatory Agreement referred to above, and agreed to certain “affordability restrictions” that limited the rental rates it charged tenants. The mortgage loan insurance contract and the Regulatory Agreement were to remain in effect so long as the loan remained outstanding.

A.

When the Agreements were executed, the eligibility requirements for both programs permitted owners or developers to prepay their mortgages without HUD’s approval after twenty years from the date of endorsement. 24 C.F.R. §§ 221.524, 236.30 (1970). The right of prepayment that was set out in the note reflected contemporaneous HUD regulations governing the Section 221 and Section 236 Programs. 24 C.F.R. §§ 221.524(a)(ii), 236.30(a)(i) (1970). Those regulations also contained language reserving to HUD the right to future amendments, subject only to the restriction that “such amendment shall not adversely affect the interests of a mortgagee or lender under the contract of insurance on any mortgage or loan already insured.” 24 C.F.R. § 221.749 (1970). The prepayment provision was not in the Regulatory Agreement but in the note issued by the bank. The agreement between plaintiffs and HUD did not mention developers’ prepayment rights.

Plaintiffs’ notes with the banks included this provision:

The debt evidenced by this note may not be prepaid either in whole or in part prior to the final maturity date hereof without the prior written approval of the Federal Housing Commissioner except a maker which is a limited dividend corporation may prepay without such approval after 20 years from the date of final endorsement of this note by the Federal Housing Commissioner.

The prepayment provisions in the notes tracked regulations in effect at the time. The regulations permitted prepayment after twenty years without HUD approval, subject to amendment as noted. Cienega II, 194 F.3d at 1244.

B.

In the late 1980s, Congress became concerned that nearly one million low-income housing units soon would be lost to developers’ exercise of their prepayment rights. These units included those insured under Sections 221 and 236 of the National Housing Act, those produced with assistance under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937, and rural units financed under section 515 of the Housing Act of 1949. 12 U.S.C. § 17154 12 U.S.C. § 1715z-l; and 42 U.S.C. § 1437f. Congress determined that the loss of this federally assisted low-income housing “would inflict unacceptable harm on current tenants and would precipitate a grave national crisis in the supply of low income housing that was neither anticipated nor intended when contracts for these units were entered into.” Pub.L. No. 100-242, 101 Stat. 1877 (1987) (codified at 12 U.S.C. § 1715Z (note) (1989)).

Congress passed the Emergency Low Income Housing Preservation Act of 1987 (ELIHPA) to address this concern. Id. ELIHPA provided that a developer or owner of Section 221 or 236 property could prepay its mortgage only in accordance with a plan of action approved by HUD. Id. Owners would file a notice of intent to prepay, and HUD would provide to the owner the information that it needed to prepare a plan of action.

ELIHPA permitted HUD to approve prepayment only if the owner could satisfy certain conditions. These conditions ensured that the impact of prepayment on current low-income tenants would be minimal and [105]*105that a sufficient supply of comparable housing would remain in the area. ELIHPA § 225(a).2

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Related

CCA Associates v. United States
91 Fed. Cl. 580 (Federal Claims, 2010)
Cienega Gardens v. United States
503 F.3d 1266 (Federal Circuit, 2007)
Cienega Gardens v. United States
67 Fed. Cl. 434 (Federal Claims, 2005)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
51 Fed. Cl. 102, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 246, 2001 WL 1555961, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alexander-investment-v-united-states-uscfc-2001.