Fifth Third Bank v. United States

57 Fed. Cl. 586, 2003 U.S. Claims LEXIS 232, 2003 WL 22049544
United States Court of Federal Claims·Decided August 6, 2003·No. No. 95-503C·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

ORDER

MILLER, Judge.

This order addresses the remaining claims in this Winstar case brought by Fifth Third Bank of Western Ohio (“plaintiff’), successor to Citizens Federal Bank, FSB.1 See United States v. Winstar Corp., 518 U.S. 839, 116 S.Ct. 2432, 135 L.Ed.2d 964 (1996). On June 12, 2003, this court issued an opinion granting defendant’s motion, pursuant to RCFC 52(c), for judgment on partial findings as to liability. See Fifth Third Bank of Western Ohio v. United States, 56 Fed.Cl. 668 (2003). The opinion addressed only plaintiffs theories based on breach of contract and breach of implied contract, as reflected in Counts I and II of plaintiffs first amended complaint filed on October 23, 1996. The remaining causes of action- — Counts III, IV, and V— plead various iterations of a violation of Citizens’ Fifth Amendment rights.

Subsequent to the court’s liability decision, defendant filed a motion arguing that Counts III, IV, and V of the complaint should be dismissed in light of the Federal Circuit’s decision in Castle v. United States, 301 F.3d 1328 (Fed.Cir.2002). The court treated this motion as a supplemental brief to defendant’s October 10, 2000 dispositive motion, in which defendant had moved for summary judgment as to Counts III and IV and sought dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction with respect to Count V. The court ordered additional briefing from plaintiff and withheld entry of judgment pending disposition of these remaining claims. See Order entered June 24, 2003, 111. The legal viability of Counts III, TV, and V of plaintiffs first amended complaint is now before the court.

Count III of plaintiffs first amended complaint pleads a taking of Citizens’ contract rights.2 Plaintiff argues that the Government, through the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989, Pub.L. No. 101-73, 103 Stat. 183 (“FIRREA”), and its implementing regulations, took Citizens’ contract rights “arising from the government’s promises regarding the use of the purchase method of accounting and the regulatory capital treatment of goodwill ....” First Am. Compl. filed Oct. 23, 1996, 1184. Plaintiff concedes that the Federal Circuit’s reasoning in Castle supports the dismissal of this cause of action. See Pl.’s Br. filed July 8, 2003, at 4. In Castle the court of appeals concluded that the enactment of FIRREA did not take plaintiffs’ contract rights because plaintiffs retained the full range of remedies available to them under the contract after FIRREA’s passage. 301 F.3d at 1341 — 42. Count III in the case at bar presents a claim almost identical to that rejected in Castle, as plaintiff has conceded.3 Thus, the court grants defendant’s motion for summary judgment as to Count III.

Count V of the first amended complaint alleges a violation of Citizens’ due process rights, based on the theory that FIRREA and its implementing regulations precluded Citizens from counting goodwill toward its regulatory capital and from amortizing the goodwill. First Am. Compl. HIT 92-93. Defendant contends that this claim is outside the subject matter jurisdiction of the Court of Federal Claims, and [588]*588plaintiff agrees. See Pl.’s Br. filed July 8, 2003, at 6. In Crocker v. United States, 125 F.3d 1475 (Fed.Cir.1997) (per curiam), the Federal Circuit affirmed the Court of Federal Claims’s dismissal of plaintiffs due process claim for lack of jurisdiction. The appeals court reiterated the well established principle that the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491 (2002), waives the Government’s sovereign immunity only when a statute, regulation, or constitutional provision confers a substantive right to money damages. Crocker, 125 F.3d at 1476 (citing United States v. Mitchell, 463 U.S. 206, 103 S.Ct. 2961, 77 L.Ed.2d 580 (1983)). Because the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment does not establish such a right, the Court of Federal Claims lacks jurisdiction over due process causes of action. Id. Accordingly, the court grants defendant’s motion with respect to Count V of plaintiffs first amended complaint.

Plaintiffs remaining cause of action, as reflected in Count IV of the first amended complaint, alleges a taking of Citizens’ property rights. This is the claim that plaintiff views as distinguishable from that addressed in Castle. Plaintiff maintains that Citizens’ ability to count the goodwill generated from the supervisory transactions toward its regulatory capital and “to amortize such goodwill over extended periods of up to 40 years constitutes valuable property based upon, among other things, [Citizens’] reasonable, investment-based expectations.” First Am. Compl. 1188. The Government, plaintiff charges, took this property without providing just compensation as required by the Constitution. Id. H 89.

Defendant argues that this claim, too, is foreclosed by Castle. Plaintiff insists that Castle is inapposite because Count IV pleads a taking of the goodwill generated by the transactions, not a taking of contract rights. Plaintiff argues that Castle precludes only a claim for the taking of contract rights and that the Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Cienega Gardens v. United States, 331 F.3d 1319 (Fed.Cir.2003), militates against dismissing Count IV. Presenting Count IV as a viable alternative to its breach of contract claim, plaintiff requests that the court stay adjudication of Count IV until , the Federal Circuit addresses the court’s entry of judgment for defendant regarding all the contract claims.

Both Count III — which plaintiff concedes is foreclosed by Castle — and Count IV involve the regulatory treatment accorded the supervisory transactions. Regardless of how plaintiff frames its causes of action, this treatment was the result of negotiations (which the court has found did not result in enforceable contracts) between Citizens and the Government. It is well settled that when the allegedly taken property was created by agreement, interference with it “ ‘generally gives rise to a breach claim[,] not a taking[s] claim.’ ” Hughes Communications Galaxy, Inc. v. United States, 271 F.3d 1060, 1070 (Fed.Cir.2001) (quoting Sun Oil Co. v. United States, 215 Ct.Cl. 716, 572 F.2d 786, 818 (1978)); see also Baggett Transp. Co. v. United States, 969 F.2d 1028, 1034 (Fed.Cir.1992). Conversely, if the property at issue is not the product of the relevant agreement, then a takings cause of action may co-exist with a breach claim. Compare J.J. Henry Co. v. United States, 188 Ct.Cl. 39, 411 F.2d 1246

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Fifth Third Bank v. United States, 57 Fed. Cl. 586, 2003 U.S. Claims LEXIS 232, 2003 WL 22049544 (uscfc 2003).

57 Fed. Cl. 586 (Fifth Third Bank v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Fifth Third Bank v. United States
71 Fed. Cl. 56 (Federal Claims, 2006)
Klamath Irrigation District v. United States
67 Fed. Cl. 504 (Federal Claims, 2005)
Franconia Associates v. United States
61 Fed. Cl. 718 (Federal Claims, 2004)
Houston v. United States
60 Fed. Cl. 507 (Federal Claims, 2004)
Allegre Villa, Ltd. Partnership v. United States
60 Fed. Cl. 11 (Federal Claims, 2004)