Franklin Savings Corp. v. United States

46 Fed. Cl. 533, 2000 U.S. Claims LEXIS 74, 2000 WL 514098
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedApril 28, 2000
DocketNo. 98-697 C
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 46 Fed. Cl. 533 (Franklin Savings Corp. 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
Franklin Savings Corp. v. United States, 46 Fed. Cl. 533, 2000 U.S. Claims LEXIS 74, 2000 WL 514098 (uscfc 2000).

Opinion

OPINION and ORDER

TURNER, Judge.

Franklin Savings Corporation (FSC) owns most of the stock of Franklin Savings Association (FSA). At all relevant times prior to February 15, 1990, FSA conducted business as a Kansas chartered, but federally insured, savings and loan association. On that date, pursuant to procedures established in the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA), 12 U.S.C. § 1461 et seq., the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) caused the appointment of the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) as a conservator of FSA; on July 16, 1992, the conservatorship was converted to a liquidating receivership. Thereafter, the assets of FSA were liquidated, and the entity was dissolved as an operating institution.

Plaintiffs assert both a Fifth Amendment taking claim and a breach of contract claim arising from the takeover and eventual liquidation of FSA. Plaintiffs place heavy emphasis upon their assertion that FSA was actually solvent under applicable accounting standards at the time it was initially placed in conservatorship. Plaintiffs further assert bad faith and reckless conduct by government regulators in connection with the seizure and liquidation of FSA.

This opinion addresses defendant’s motion filed on April 12,1999 to dismiss both counts of the complaint for, inter alia, failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted. (At this juncture, defendant interposes no objection to the jurisdiction of the court or the standing of either plaintiff with respect to either of plaintiffs’ claims. Tr. (11/9/99) at 11.)

We conclude that plaintiffs’ taking claim must be dismissed for failure to state a claim for which relief may be granted. We further conclude that the government’s motion to dismiss with regard to plaintiffs’ breach of contract claim should be denied without prejudice, since a dispositive ruling on the contract claim at this juncture would be premature.

I

This litigation was transferred to this court by the federal district court in Kansas. The background of this litigation before transfer is recounted in numerous published opinions.1 For this opinion, it will suffice to state [535]*535the following: FSC acquired FSA in 1973. As the bank grew under FSC’s ownership, its deposits increased from $200 million to over $11 billion. With this growth, FSA’s portfolio changed. FSA began to hold various higher risk assets such as mortgage-backed derivatives and high risk, non-investment grade bonds. As a result of this newly diversified portfolio, federal bank regulators grew concerned about FSA’s banking practices. By February 15, 1990, the regulators concluded that the stated asset value of many of FSA’s hedged funds should be considered losses immediately, although FSA’s accounting methods would have allowed recognizing such losses in subsequent years. As a result, OTS believed that the bank was insolvent and that bank regulators needed to seize control of the bank immediately.

Following seizure in February 1990, plaintiffs immediately challenged its propriety in a district court action pursuant to 12 U.S.C. § 1464(d)(2)(B) (the critical paragraph was lettered (E) at the time of suit), but were ultimately unsuccessful. See footnote 1 for recitation of the background of this litigation; reference is made to the opinions cited therein for a complete history of the case.

FSC filed a bankruptcy petition on July 26, 1991. In response, OTS filed two claims against FSC. One claim asserted that FSC was indebted to FSA (and RTC as its conservator) in the amount of $271.8 million based upon FSC’s failure to maintain the net worth obligations of FSA consistent with federal regulations. OTS’s second claim was for $100,000 for fees assessed from RTC’s administration of FSA.

FSC filed a counterclaim, asserting that OTS’s appointment of a conservator for the bank constituted a Fifth Amendment taking. (Presumably, a counterclaim for breach of contract was also filed in that proceeding, although the current record in this court is not clear on this point.) Those claims were transferred to this court and are the claims addressed in this opinion. (The initial pleading filed by plaintiffs in this court, on September 30, 1998, was originally entitled “Second Amended Counterclaim Complaint,” but the title has been changed to “Amended Complaint.)” To date, this pleading is the only complaint filed in this court.

II

Plaintiffs’ first claim is that OTS’s seizure and liquidation of FSA constituted a compensable taking. Compl. ¶¶ 34-42. Athough, as detailed below, Federal Circuit authority would appear to preclude a taking claim grounded on such regulatory conduct, plaintiffs assert that their claim is distinguishable from those presented in precedent because FSA was actually solvent at the time of seizure and the regulatory decision-makers were motivated by bad faith and acted in reckless disregard of plaintiffs’ rights.

A

The Federal Circuit has never upheld a claim that a seizure of a financial institution under the statutes and regulations designed to insure safe and secure banking institutions constituted a taking. On three occasions, the Federal Circuit has explicitly held that such seizure of a financial institution does not constitute a Fifth Amendment taking. Branch v. United States, 69 F.3d 1571, 1575 (Fed.Cir.), cert. den., 519 U.S. 810, 117 S.Ct. 55, 136 L.Ed.2d 18 (1996); Golden Pac. Ban-[536]*536corp v. United States, 15 F.3d 1066, 1073-74 (Fed.Cir.), cert. den., 513 U.S. 961, 115 S.Ct. 420, 130 L.Ed.2d 335 (1994); California Hous. Secur., Inc. v. United States, 959 F.2d 955, 958 (Fed.Cir.), cert. den., 506 U.S. 916, 113 S.Ct. 324, 121 L.Ed.2d 244 (1992).

The fundamental rationale of these Federal Circuit cases is that banking is a highly regulated industry and that one engaged in that business is deemed to understand that if his bank becomes insolvent or, in the judgment of the regulatory authorities, is engaged in unsafe or unsound banking practices, the bank may be seized by government officials and be operated and/or liquidated by them.

Plaintiffs distinguish these three Federal Circuit cases as “absolutely irrelevant to the takings issue in this case” because they “invariably involve insolvent institutions.” Pl. Br. (5/27/99) at 14 (emphasis in original). While it is true that Branch and California Hous. Secur. addressed only seizures of insolvent institutions, Golden Pac. Bancorp, like this case, dealt with an assertion that the financial institution involved was actually solvent. In Golden Pac. Bancorp, the Federal Circuit noted, 15 F.3d at 1075, that the shareholder-plaintiffs’ argument that the regulatory official “closed a solvent Bank and therefore failed to advance a legitimate government interest” was unavailing. In prior litigation under a tort theory in the U.S.

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Bluebook (online)
46 Fed. Cl. 533, 2000 U.S. Claims LEXIS 74, 2000 WL 514098, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/franklin-savings-corp-v-united-states-uscfc-2000.