Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. TWT Exploration Co.

626 F. Supp. 149
District Court, W.D. Oklahoma·Decided January 14, 1986·No. 83-1857-B·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

BOHANON, District Judge.

This matter is now before the court upon three separate motions for summary judgment. The plaintiff, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, in its corporate capacity (“Corporate FDIC”), seeks judgment as to liability on Count V of its Amended Complaint against defendant Bob Alexander, and on Count VI against defendant William A. Jenkins, on the basis of these defendants’ alleged unconditional, unlimited guarantees of $9,050,106.59 worth of indebtedness of an Oklahoma corporation, J.P. Exploration, Inc. (“J.P. Exploration”). Bob Alexander has himself filed a motion for summary judgment in his favor on Corporate FDIC’s claims against him. Lastly, the third-party defendant Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, as Receiver of Penn Square Bank, N.A. (“Receiver FDIC”), 1 moves for summary judgment against Alexander on his third-party complaint which seeks to hold Receiver FDIC accountable for alleged wrongdoing on the part of either the now defunct Penn Square Bank or Receiver FDIC itself in connection with the same guarantees used by Corporate FDIC as the basis for its claims against Alexander.

*151 The court recognizes from the outset that Corporate FDIC and Receiver FDIC are separate and distinct legal entities. The possibility that FDIC may act simultaneously in a dual capacity under its governing statutes was recognized as early as 1961 in Freeling v. Sebring, 296 F.2d 244 (10th Cir.1961); see also Jones v. Federal Deposit Ins. Corp., 748 F.2d 1400, 1402 (10th Cir.1984); Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Ashley, 585 F.2d 157 (6th Cir. 1978); Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Gods-hall, 558 F.2d 220 (4th Cir.1977); Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Glickman, 450 F.2d 416 (9th Cir.1971). The legal distinction between the two facets of FDIC’s operations as corporate insurer and as receiver must be recognized even where a note is transferred from the one branch of FDIC to the other and “FDIC did not maintain separate offices for its receiver and insuror capacities, and ..; the same FDIC personnel who acted for the FDIC as receiver also acted for the FDIC as corporate insuror.” Gunter v. Hutcheson, 674 F.2d 862, 873-74 (11th Cir.1982); 12 U.S.C. § 1823(d).

In the present case the difference in functions is much easier to perceive than in Gunter since Corporate FDIC did not acquire the notes and guarantees underlying the suit directly from Receiver FDIC but rather from Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago (“Continental”) which had originally participated in the loans made by Penn Square Bank, N.A. (“Penn Square”). After Penn Square was declared insolvent, Receiver FDIC agreed to transfer all of the defunct bank’s right, title and interest in the loans to Continental on July 28, 1983. Thereafter on August 3, 1983, Continental commenced this suit, though Alexander and Jenkins were not joined as defendants until the filing of an amended complaint on March 19, 1984. When Continental itself subsequently became unstable, the subject loans were purchased by Corporate FDIC on September 26, 1984, as part of the government’s corrective action or “bailout” to protect the national banking system from the possible collapse of that bank. Based on this last transfer of interest, this court, on April 8, 1985, granted Continental’s Motion for Substitution of Party-Plaintiff pursuant to F.R.Civ.P. 25(c), and since that date Corporate FDIC alone has been the plaintiff in this cause. Receiver FDIC did not become a party to the action until April 29, 1985, when Alexander filed his third-party complaint.

This third-party complaint must be dismissed outright because it fails to allege facts supporting this court’s jurisdiction. The pleading, which asserts several claims sounding in tort against Receiver FDIC, states that this court has jurisdiction under 12 U.S.C. § 1819 which allows FDIC to “sue and be sued” and grants United States courts original jurisdiction of “[a]ll suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity to which [FDIC] ... shall be a party____” The FDIC is, however, a federal agency within the meaning of the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. § 2671 et seq., and Alexander’s action, therefore, must proceed, if at all, directly against the United States in conformity with the requirements of the FTCA. Freeling v. Federal Deposit Ins. Corp., 221 F.Supp. 955 (W.D.Okla.1962) affirmed 326 F.2d 971 (10th Cir.1963); Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Citizens Bank & Trust Co., 592 F.2d 364 (7th Cir.1979); Safeway Portland E. F.C.U. v. Federal Deposit Ins. Corp., 506 F.2d 1213 (9th Cir.1974); Segarra Ocasio v. Banco Regional de Bayamon, 581 F.Supp. 1255 (D.Puerto Rico, 1984); 28 U.S.C. § 2679(a). Alexander has failed to plead jurisdiction under the FTCA and also has not alleged facts constituting compliance with the procedural requirements of that Act, including the filing of an administrative claim with the appropriate federal agency and a final denial of the administrative claim by that agency. 28 U.S.C. § 2675(a). This court, therefore, lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter of Alexander’s third-party complaint, and it must be dismissed. Lann v. Hill, 436 F.Supp. 463 (W.D.Okla.1977); F.R.Civ.P. 12(h)(3). Receiver FDIC’s motion for summary judgment on the third-party complaint will be mooted by this dismissal.

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Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. TWT Exploration Co., 626 F. Supp. 149 (W.D. Okla. 1986).

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