California Federal Bank v. United States

43 Fed. Cl. 445, 1999 U.S. Claims LEXIS 77, 1999 WL 225550
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedApril 16, 1999
DocketNo. 92-138 C
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 43 Fed. Cl. 445 (California Federal Bank 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
California Federal Bank v. United States, 43 Fed. Cl. 445, 1999 U.S. Claims LEXIS 77, 1999 WL 225550 (uscfc 1999).

Opinion

OPINION

HODGES, Judge.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the United States breached its contracts with certain financial institutions when it enacted the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), United States v. Winstar Corporation, 518 U.S. 839, 116 S.Ct. 2432, 135 L.Ed.2d 964 (1996). FIRREA eliminated the use of a special accounting treatment for banks’ acquisitions of failing thrifts. Therefore, the law of this case is that the Government broke its promise to California Federal Bank (Cal Fed) that it could count “supervisory goodwill” as capital and amortize it over a period of 40 years. We are directed to determine the damages flowing from that breach of contract. See California Federal Bank v. United States, 39 Fed.Cl. 753 (1997).

Plaintiff argued that damages flowing from defendant’s breach of contract totaled more than $1 billion. Cal Fed did not prove such damages at trial, however. It did not establish substantial losses that we could translate into damages properly awarded against the United States in this court. Cal Fed was a relatively healthy thrift before it entered into this contract, and it is healthy today.

Well-qualified experts for both sides testified during six weeks of trial. We questioned them closely concerning the nature and value of goodwill, which is the subject matter of this contract. We have considered all of that testimony and other evidence carefully. Plaintiff did not prove that it was damaged beyond the costs of raising capital to replace its goodwill.

BACKGROUND

The Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) lacked resources to rescue all of the failing thrifts during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980’s. Therefore, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board encouraged healthier thrifts to take over failing thrifts through supervisory mergers. As an incentive, acquiring entities were allowed to use “supervisory goodwill” toward them capital reserve requirements. Goodwill was [448]*448the amount by which liabilities of the acquired failing thrifts exceeded their assets.

Cal Fed acquired four failing thrifts in Georgia and Florida through supervisory mergers in February 1982. Through a series of documents, a contract was created which authorized the merger of thrifts known as “Southeast” with Cal Fed.1

Cal Fed assumed approximately $305 million in net liabilities from the Southeast merger that was recorded on its books at goodwill. FSLIC gave Cal Fed $9 million for the transaction because the four Southeast thrifts were in danger of default. The goodwill was to be amortized over 35 to 40 years. Cal Fed sold most of the Southeast thrifts in Georgia in 1986, and sold the remainder of the Southeast division in 1994.

Cal Fed acquired Brentwood Savings and Loan through a supervisory merger in October 1982.2 It assumed $315 million in net liabilities (goodwill) as a result of the transaction. The goodwill was to be amortized over 35 to 40 years.

Congress passed the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act in 1989.3 That law prohibited thrifts from continuing to count supervisory goodwill as part of their capital reserve. At the time of FIR-REA, $390 million in goodwill remained on Cal Fed’s books. After FIRREA, Cal Fed was forced to phase out its remaining goodwill in five steps between December 1989 and January 1995. Thus, all supervisory goodwill resulting from the Southeast and Brentwood transactions was removed from Cal Fed’s books by 1995. The contractual schedule would have completed the phase-out of goodwill between 2017 and 2022.

SUMMARY OF OPINION

I. Assumption of Liabilities

Plaintiff was not harmed by its assumption of the assets and liabilities of the failing institutions that it acquired. The net liabilities assumed by plaintiff exceeded assets because of high mortgage interest rates and purchase accounting principles.4 When interest rates fell, plaintiff no longer held liabilities that exceeded assets. Of the loans that Cal Fed sold prior to the interest rate decline, the proceeds were reinvested in fixed rate loans. This benefitted Cal Fed.

Plaintiff is not entitled to credit for the money that FSLIC might have saved from not having to liquidate the failing thrifts. It is not entitled to recover investment income that the Government may have earned on the funds FSLIC retained as a result of not having to liquidate the thrifts that Cal Fed took over. Cal Fed’s acquisition of the failing thrifts was successful; they resulted in a going concern. Plaintiff turned the failing thrifts around and made money from them, but no one knew at the time of contracting whether this would occur.

II. Wounded Bank Damages

Plaintiffs argument essentially is that defendant’s withdrawal of Cal Fed’s right to use goodwill as capital put the bank in a perilous financial condition that resulted in certain costs that plaintiff otherwise would not have incurred. These included higher costs of deposits because of customer concern, higher assessment fees charged by the regulators, and higher borrowing costs. Plaintiff did not establish a relationship between these costs and any actions by the federal government, however. If it had, plaintiff did not establish that defendant’s breach caused those problems. If plaintiff was damaged at all from its contract with defendant, it has not made the showing necessary to support a substantial judgment against the United States. Evidence of $285 million in wounded bank costs was “too uncertain and remote to be taken into consider[449]*449ation as part of the damages occasioned by the breach of the contract in suit.” Myerle v. United States, 33 Ct.Cl. 1, 26, 1800 WL 2024 (1897).

III. Lost Profits

We directed the parties not to argue lost profits at trial because it became clear that such damages would have been impermissibly vague and speculative. “The general rule in common law breach of contract cases is to award damages that will place the injured party in as good a position as he or she would have been in had the breaching party fully performed.” Estate of Berg v. United States, 231 Ct.Cl. 466, 687 F.2d 377, 379 (1982) (citing Northern Helex Co. v. United States, 207 Ct.Cl. 862, 875, 524 F.2d 707, 713 (1975)). But what does “fully performed” mean in this case. Plaintiff performed its part — taking over the failing Southeast and Brentwood banks. Defendant’s performance would have been allowing supervisory goodwill to count as capital for 33 more years. What consequences would such an allowance have had? How would plaintiffs fortunes have changed? Too many variables and unknowns prevent us from making a reasonable guess. “Remote and consequential damages are not recoverable in a common law breach of contract ... especially ... in suits against the United States for the recovery of common law damages ....” Northern Helex, 207 Ct.Cl. at 886, 524 F.2d 707.

IV. Replacement Costs

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Bluebook (online)
43 Fed. Cl. 445, 1999 U.S. Claims LEXIS 77, 1999 WL 225550, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/california-federal-bank-v-united-states-uscfc-1999.