Citizens Federal Bank, FSB v. United States

51 Fed. Cl. 682, 2002 U.S. Claims LEXIS 29, 2002 WL 243765
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedFebruary 20, 2002
DocketNo. 92-656 C
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 51 Fed. Cl. 682 (Citizens Federal Bank, FSB 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
Citizens Federal Bank, FSB v. United States, 51 Fed. Cl. 682, 2002 U.S. Claims LEXIS 29, 2002 WL 243765 (uscfc 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

DAMICH, Judge.

This case is before the Court on the Plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment, the Defendant’s cross-motion for summary judgment as to liability and the Court’s Order to Show Cause in this Winstar-related case. At issue is whether the Defendant breached its contractual obligations to the Plaintiffs with respect to Citizens Federal Savings Bank’s acquisition of Equitable Federal Savings and Loan Association of Lancaster, Ohio, in 1986 and American Savings Bank of Springfield, Illinois, in 1988. Oral argument is deemed unnecessary. For the reasons enumerated below, the Plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment is GRANTED, and the Defendant’s cross-motion is DENIED.

I. Facts

A. Background

On August 9, 1989, Congress enacted the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA). Pub.L. No. 101-73, 103 Stat. 183, codified, in relevant part, at 12 U.S.C. § 1464. FIRREA “(1) abolished the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) and transferred its functions to the other agencies; (2) created a new thrift deposit insurance fund under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC); (3) eliminated the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) and replaced it with the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), an office within the Department of Treasury, and made the OTS Director responsible for the regulation of all federally insured savings associations and the chartering of federal thrifts; [and] (4) established the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC), which was charged with closing certain thrifts.” Winstar Corp. v. United States, 64 F.3d 1531, 1538 (Fed.Cir.1995) (paraphrasing 12 U.S.C. §§ 1437, note 1441a, 1821). FIR-REA required OTS to “prescribe and maintain uniformly applicable capital standards for savings associations.” 12 U.S.C. § 1464(t)(I)(a). It also expressly restricted the continued use of supervisory goodwill to satisfy regulatory capital requirements. It [684]*684did so by establishing three new capital standards: core capital, tangible capital and risk-based capital. 12 U.S.C. § 1464(t). Pursuant to these standards, supervisory goodwill could not be included in satisfying tangible capital, and had to be amortized on a 20-year basis in calculating risk-based and core capital. Id.

Many thrifts had become accustomed to recording supervisory goodwill on their books. Because the FIRREA prohibited them from continuing this practice, the affected thrifts recorded unanticipated decreases in the assets portions of their books. Winstar Corp. v. United States involved three thrifts that had brought forward breach of contract claims against the Government in the Court of Federal Claims, and had their cases consolidated for the purposes of their interlocutory appeal. Winstar Corp. v. United States, 64 F.3d at 1534. They alleged that the FHLBB had promised that they could count supervisory goodwill toward regulatory capital requirements, and that the passage of the FIRREA constituted a breach of those promises. Id. One of the three thrifts was Glendale Federal Bank, which specifically argued that it had an express contract with the government allowing it to record supervisory goodwill for regulatory capital purposes. Id. .

The Federal Circuit upheld Judge Smith’s determination that: (1) the government had entered into either express or implied-in-fact contracts allowing these three thrifts to record supervisory goodwill as regulatory capital; and that (2) these promises had been breached by the enactment of the FIRREA. Id. More specifically, with the Glendale transaction, the Federal Circuit agreed with both the plaintiff and Judge Smith on the issue of contractual liability. Id. The Supreme Court affirmed. United States v. Winstar Corp., 518 U.S. 839, 116 S.Ct. 2432, 135 L.Ed.2d 964 (1996).

II. The Equitable Federal Savings and Loan Acquisition

A. Facts

The story of the Equitable transaction, however, began before the Winstar opinion and before the passage of the FIRREA. It involved Citizens Federal Savings Bank’s (Citizens) acquisition of Equitable Federal Savings and Loan Association of Lancaster, Ohio (Equitable), an insolvent savings and loan institution, on July 9,1986. The process of acquiring Equitable began in 1985, when the FHLBB and FSLIC solicited Citizens to submit a proposal to acquire Equitable. On October 22, 1985, Citizens and Citizens Savings Financial Corporation (CSFC) submitted a bid, and then an amended bid (Bid Letter) on April 28, 1986. Their Bid Letter asked FSLIC: (1) to purchase cumulative preferred stock, which CSFC would issue to FSLIC for $97.1 million, (2) to provide FSLIC a note for $36 million and (3) to indemnify the resulting institution against certain potential losses. The Bid Letter also expressly asked for FHLBB’s permission to allow Citizens to use the purchase method of accounting. It provided as follows:

For regulatory purposes, the [FHLBB] will approve the adjustment of assets of Equitable in accordance with the purchase or pushdown method of accounting. Under such method, the value of any intangible assets resulting from this accounting will be amortized by Citizens Federal over a period of 25 years by the straight line method in accordance with GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).

After the FHLBB and the FSLIC selected Citizens’ and CSFC’s bid as the most attractive, Citizens and Equitable entered into a Merger Agreement. The Merger Agreement was expressly conditioned upon the execution of an Assistance Agreement containing terms satisfactory to the FSLIC and “substantially complying] with those in [the Bid Letter] ... and as may be specified in subsequent revisions to the Bid Letter.”

Citizens, CSFC and FSLIC entered into an Assistance Agreement on July 8, 1986. The Assistance Agreement incorporated the FHLBB Resolution (“Resolution”), which stated as follows:

§ 18 Accounting Principles. Except as otherwise provided herein, any computations made for purposes of this Agreement shall be governed by generally accepted [685]*685accounting principles as applied in the savings and loan industry----

The Assistance Agreement also included an integration clause, which provided as follows:

§ 25 Entire Agreement, Severability
(a) This Agreement ... together with any interpretation or understanding agreed to in writing by the parties, constitute the entire agreement between the parties and supersede all prior agreement and understandings of the parties relating to the purchase of the Series A preferred Stock or other forms or assistance from the Corporation, excepting only any resolutions or letters issued contemporaneously with this Agreement by the Bank Board or the Corporation.

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Related

Citizens Federal Bank v. United States
474 F.3d 1314 (Federal Circuit, 2007)
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Bluebook (online)
51 Fed. Cl. 682, 2002 U.S. Claims LEXIS 29, 2002 WL 243765, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/citizens-federal-bank-fsb-v-united-states-uscfc-2002.