Anderson v. United States

47 Fed. Cl. 438, 2000 U.S. Claims LEXIS 171, 2000 WL 1222168
United States Court of Federal Claims·Decided August 22, 2000·No. Nos. 91-34C, 95-805C·Published·Cited by 18 cases

Opinion

OPINION

SMITH, Senior Judge.

These consolidated Winstar-related cases are before the court on the following motions: defendant’s motions to dismiss all plaintiffs; the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment as to liability; and the government’s motions for summary judgment based on special pleas in fraud, along with motions to dismiss or for summary judgment against defendant on its fraud counterclaims filed by all plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs in these consolidated cases allege that the federal government breached a contractual promise to permit the former Dade Savings and Loan Association to amortize goodwill created during the supervisory acquisition and conversion of Dade by David L. Paul and a trust operating for the benefit of his two sons. The plaintiffs in these cases, however, do not agree on who the parties to the alleged contract are. The Pauls contend that they contracted directly with government regulators. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which has intervened in both cases as the successor in interest to the failed CenTrust Bank (formerly Dade Savings) contends that it is CenTrust which contracted with the government regarding the treatment of goodwill. Patricia Wallace, whose ease was consolidated with the lead case here, is a former CenTrust shareholder. Her claim is premised upon the alleged goodwill contract.

Defendant has moved to dismiss the claims of the Paul plaintiffs and Mrs. Wallace for lack of standing. Defendant has cross-moved for summary judgment as to liability on the grounds that no contract was formed and, even were the court to find that a contract existed, plaintiffs committed a prior material breach. In addition, defendant has filed a summary judgment motion based on a special plea in fraud pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2514 on the grounds that plaintiff David L. Paul and other officers of the failed CenTrust Bank engaged in myriad fraudulent activities [440]*440which mandate the forfeiture of all plaintiffs’ claims against the United States.

The case has operated under case management procedures instituted to manage similar cases in the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Winstar Corp., 518 U.S. 839, 116 S.Ct. 2432, 135 L.Ed.2d 964 (1996). In resolving these motions, the court has availed itself of the individualized briefing that has taken place in this case, as well as the show cause briefing ordered in California Fed. Bank v. United States, 39 Fed.Cl. 753, 779 (1997), and the general Common Issue 11 briefing commissioned by the court on standing issues. Motions to Dismiss for Lack of Standing

Currently pending are motions against the three Paul plaintiffs and Patricia Wallace to dismiss for lack of standing pursuant to RCFC 12(b)(1).1 Defendant contends that the Paul plaintiffs and Mrs. Wallace are all mere shareholders who are attempting to, in effect, bring derivative claims that belong to the thrift.

Defendant’s argument against the Paul’s claims is easily resolved. The Paul plaintiffs have maintained, at all times, that they are bringing direct claims for breach of contract. Far from being mere shareholders of CenTrust, the Pauls contend that they were the sole contracting parties, or alternatively parties along with Dade, to a contract with federal regulators regarding the treatment of goodwill. Just because the plaintiffs, per the terms of their acquisition of Dade, ultimately became shareholders of the thrift, does not mean that they cannot possibly be parties, or third-party beneficiaries to, the alleged contract. The Paul plaintiffs have pled that they were contracting parties, or third party beneficiaries, and no rule regarding the status of shareholders or derivative suits alters that fact.

The case of Patricia Wallace is quite different. Unlike the Pauls, who contend that they were parties to the contract with the government, Patricia Wallace makes no such assertion. She is a former shareholder of CenTrust Bank who, after the acquisition and conversion of Dade, purchased 55,000 shares of CenTrust stock over a period of two years, and who subsequently sold the stock, at a substantial loss, after the passage of FIRREA in 1989. Defendant makes the following arguments. First, defendant argues that the claim of Mrs. Wallace is purely derivative because she is neither a party to, nor an intended beneficiary of, any goodwill contract. Second, defendant argues that Mrs. Wallace, for several reasons, cannot remain in the litigation to protect any interest in a surplus, as permitted by Issue Judge James T. Turner.

Plaintiff Wallace, while acknowledging that she is not a party to an alleged contract, nonetheless contends that she is a third-party beneficiary of the alleged contract. Plaintiff Wallace argues that the entire deal was structured in such a manner that shareholders like her were designed to be third-party beneficiaries. Specifically, Mrs. Wallace points to the fact that the acquisition and conversion of Dade were premised upon, among other things, a public stock offering that was designed to raise $30 million after the conversion, and that regulators recognized this and based their approval of the acquisition and conversion of Dade upon this fact. Accordingly, Mrs. Wallace contends that she, and all other shareholders in CenTrust, were intended beneficiaries of the alleged goodwill contract, because the deal anticipated the infusion of this $30 million from the public capital markets.

The court starts with the premise that shareholders generally are not accorded third-party beneficiary status. “While every action of a corporation is supposed to benefit its shareholders, our law has not viewed this general benefit as making every shareholder a third-party beneficiary.” Suess v. United States, 33 Fed.Cl. 89, 94 (1995). Still, the court has been willing to accord third-party [441]*441beneficiary status to plaintiffs in cases where it is clear that the essence of the transaction is to provide regulatory incentives to encourage specific investors to capitalize an institution. See, e.g. Castle v. United States, 42 Fed.Cl. 859, 864-65 (1999); Glass v. United States, 44 Fed.Cl. 73, 79 (1999).

In this instance, however, it is clear that Mrs. Wallace, even under the most expansive possible reading of the putative contract, is not a third-party beneficiary. Moreover, even were the court to agree with her argument that the contract was designed to accord third-party beneficiary status to those CenTrust shareholders who bought shares as part of the public stock offering contemplated by the application for conversion, Mrs. Wallace could not claim the status.

This is clear when one reviews the very document that plaintiff Wallace relies upon in making the argument that CenTrust shareholders can claim third-party beneficiary status. Indeed it is manifest that the FHLBB elected not to condition the approval of the conversion application on the cash infusion from the prospective public offering. In a Memorandum from the Regional Director of the FHLBB’s Office of Examination and Supervision dated August 31, 1983, the Regional Director discusses the viability of the proposal to raise approximately $30 million from a public stock offering shortly after the conversion. But the same memorandum also concludes that the approval of the transaction should not

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Anderson v. United States, 47 Fed. Cl. 438, 2000 U.S. Claims LEXIS 171, 2000 WL 1222168 (uscfc 2000).

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