Golden Pacific Bancorp v. United States

25 Cl. Ct. 768, 1992 U.S. Claims LEXIS 188, 1992 WL 85245
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedApril 28, 1992
DocketNo. 91-1242C
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 25 Cl. Ct. 768 (Golden Pacific Bancorp v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Golden Pacific Bancorp v. United States, 25 Cl. Ct. 768, 1992 U.S. Claims LEXIS 188, 1992 WL 85245 (cc 1992).

Opinion

ORDER

MOODY R. TIDWELL, III, Judge:

This case is before the court on defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, or in the alternative, for summary judgment. For the reasons set forth below, the court grants defendant’s motion to dismiss.

FACTS

Golden Pacific National Bank (Bank) is a national bank, chartered pursuant to 12 U.S.C. § 27 (1988), with its principal place of business in New York. Plaintiffs are Golden Pacific Bancorp (Golden Pacific), which owns approximately 90 percent of Bank’s stock, and Miles P. Jennings who owns 6,400 shares of Golden Pacific stock.

On June 17, 1985, acting on an informant’s tip, the Comptroller of the Currency undertook a surprise investigation of the Bank. The Comptroller found that the Bank had issued certificates of deposit which were not recorded on the Bank’s books, nor made available to bank examiners during routine examinations. The certificates were known, because of their col- or, as “Yellow CDs,” and were treated as standard certificates of deposit. They bore the Bank’s name, stated a fixed interest rate and maturity date, and were consistently honored upon demand or maturity. Bank officials treated the Yellow CDs as investments, but the Comptroller determined them to be deposits, and thus liabilities of the Bank. As liabilities, offsetting assets were required to be maintained by the Bank, or it would be technically insolvent. Although Bank officials claimed that the Bank held assets sufficient to offset the Yellow CDs, the Comptroller was not satisfied that such assets existed and determined that the Bank was engaged in “unsafe and unsound banking practices.” The Comptroller began preparing a cease-and-desist order directing the Bank to stop the sale of Yellow CDs, but before the order could issue, news of a run on the Bank caused the Comptroller to declare the Bank insolvent and place it in receivership.

Plaintiffs filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking a review of the Comptroller’s actions under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A) (1988), and requesting damages under the Federal Torts Claim Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346, 2680(a) (1988), and the Fifth Amendment. The District Court granted summary judgment for defendant on the FTCA claim, Golden Pac. Bancorp v. Clarke, No. 85-2384 (D.D.C. Feb. 7, 1986), and on the APA claim, Golden Pac. Bancorp v. Clarke, No. 85-2384 (D.D.C. Dec. 1, 1986), but did not decide the Fifth Amendment claim. On appeal, the District Court’s decisions were affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Golden Pac. Bancorp v. Clarke, 837 F.2d 509 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 890, 109 S.Ct. 223, 102 L.Ed.2d 213 (1988). The Court of Appeals did not address the takings issue since plaintiffs did not timely raise that issue.

On June 21, 1991, plaintiffs filed a complaint in this court, alleging that the actions of the Comptroller constituted a taking under the Fifth Amendment, a breach of an implied contract between the Comptroller and the Bank and its shareholders, and a mistake of fact.1

DISCUSSION

The Fifth Amendment guarantees that “private property [shall not] be taken for public use without just compensation.” [770]*770U.S. Const. amend. V. This right was “designed to bar Government from forcing some people alone to bear public burdens which, in all fairness and justice, should be borne by the public as a whole.” Armstrong v. United States, 364 U.S. 40, 49, 80 S.Ct. 1563, 1569, 4 L.Ed.2d 1554 (1960). No “set formula” has been developed to determine when “economic injuries caused by public action [should] be compensated by the government, rather than remain disproportionately concentrated on a few persons.” Penn. Cent. Transp. Co. v. New York City, 438 U.S. 104, 124, 98 S.Ct. 2646, 2659, 57 L.Ed.2d 631 (1978). However, courts have engaged in “ad hoc, factual inquiries that have identified several factors — such as the economic impact of the regulation, its interference with reasonable investment backed [sic ] expectations, and the character of the governmental action — that have particular significance.” Kaiser Aetna v. United States, 444 U.S. 164, 175, 100 S.Ct. 383, 390, 62 L.Ed.2d 332 (1979). In the present case, only the result of the Comptroller’s actions has been challenged — not their propriety.2 Specifically, plaintiffs argued that the “closure and destruction of a solvent bank” constituted a taking under the Fifth Amendment. The court disagrees.

“Banking is one of the longest regulated and most closely supervised of public callings.” Fahey v. Mallonee, 332 U.S. 245, 250, 67 S.Ct. 1552, 1554, 91 L.Ed. 2030 (1947). “[F]ederal agencies such as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ... are charged with the task of overseeing [our national] banking system for the protection of the public and the national economy as a whole, and not for the benefit or protection of individual banking institutions.” First Nat’l Bank of Scotia v. United States, 530 F.Supp. 162, 166 (D.D.C.1982). Pursuant to the regulatory scheme created by Congress, the Comptroller is authorized to issue cease-and-desist orders, impose civil money penalties, or remove officers or directors pursuant to statutory procedures whenever a bank refuses to obey the law, or persists in unsafe and unsound banking practices. 12 U.S.C. § 1818 (1988). If the Comptroller becomes “satisfied of the insolvency of a national banking association, he may, after due examination of its affairs ... appoint a receiver, who shall proceed to close up such association.” 12 U.S.C. § 191 (1988).

Plaintiffs voluntarily chose to invest in the Bank. In essence, they were “on reasonable notice as to what the ‘rules of the game’ were, or reasonably could be, in the highly regulated banking industry.” American Continental Corp. v. United States, 22 Cl.Ct. 692, 698 (1991). The actions of the Comptroller simply enforced “portions of an extensive regulatory scheme designed to promote the public interest in a sound banking system.” Id. at 696. Although the court recognizes that extensive regulation of property may constitute a taking, Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U.S. 393, 415, 43 S.Ct. 158, 160, 67 L.Ed.

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Related

Golden Pacific Bancorp v. United States
115 S. Ct. 420 (Supreme Court, 1994)

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Bluebook (online)
25 Cl. Ct. 768, 1992 U.S. Claims LEXIS 188, 1992 WL 85245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/golden-pacific-bancorp-v-united-states-cc-1992.