Home Mortgage Bank v. Ryan

768 F. Supp. 330, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18910, 1991 WL 117330
CourtDistrict Court, D. Utah
DecidedJune 26, 1991
DocketNos. 90-C-597W, 90-C-569W
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 768 F. Supp. 330 (Home Mortgage Bank v. Ryan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Home Mortgage Bank v. Ryan, 768 F. Supp. 330, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18910, 1991 WL 117330 (D. Utah 1991).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER

WINDER, District Judge.

This matter is before the court on cross-motions for summary judgment filed by T. Timothy Ryan, Jr., Director, Office of Thrift Supervision (“Ryan”), and George Sutton, Commissioner, State of Utah Department of Financial Institutions (“Sutton”). Also, the parties filed various other motions and these will be referred to below. The court heard these motions on June 21, 1991. Before the hearing, the court carefully reviewed the memoranda submitted by the parties and all other pertinent papers in the file. After taking the matter under advisement, the court has further considered the law and the facts and now renders the following Memorandum Decision and Order.

BACKGROUND

The essential facts in this lawsuit are not in dispute. Home was a Utah state chartered savings and loan institution, and was approved for federal deposit insurance from the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (“FSLIC”) in 1980. For the five fiscal years prior to 1989, Home suffered operating losses, averaging $85,-000 per quarter in 1988 and 1989. On November 30, 1989 the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) examined [332]*332Home and determined Home needed approximately $1.5 million dollars to meet its risk-based capital requirements.

As of December 81, 1989 Home had a tangible capital requirement of $259,000 and was $505,000 short of this amount. Home submitted a capital plan to the Office of Thrift Supervision (“OTS") on January 29, 1990 and withdrew that plan on March 14, 1990.

On March 22,1990 the FDIC sent a letter to Home’s Board of Directors stating, among other things, that Home had failed to meet its tangible, core and risk-based capital requirements and that the Regional Office recommended Home’s designation as a problem institution. On May 18, 1990 the OTS determined that Home was an unsafe institution and that grounds existed to place it in receivership. That same date, the OTS issued an order appointing the Resolution Trust Company (“RTC”) as the statutory receiver for Home. The OTS order provided that RTC’s appointment, pursuant to 12 U.S.C. § 1464(d)(2)(D), would not be effective until passage of the 30-day period allowing Sutton to approve or state reasons for disapproving Ryan’s findings and order.

Sutton received a copy of the order on the date of its issuance. The parties do not dispute that Ryan issued the order or that Sutton failed to approve, disapprove, or respond to the order or the underlying findings.

On June 15, 1990, Sutton, acting pursuant to state law, received, approved and purportedly made effective Home’s application to convert its charter from a savings association charter to a commercial bank charter. Before and following Sutton’s approval of the application, Home’s deposits were insured by the Savings Association Insurance Fund (“SAIF”).

In a letter dated June 19, 1990, Sutton notified the OTS and Ryan that he had approved Home’s conversion from a savings association to a commercial bank. Home did not apply for OTS approval of the conversion and on July 5, 1990 RTC took possession of Home as its receiver. That receivership has continued to this date. Home filed this suit against Ryan on July 13, 1990.

In this case, Ryan and Sutton have filed cross-motions for summary judgment. Consequently, and in rendering this decision, the court will apply the standard applicable to summary judgment motions. No separate discussion will be made as to Ryan’s motion to dismiss Home’s First Amended Complaint inasmuch as the court’s decision on Ryan’s and Sutton’s cross-motions for summary judgment requires the granting of that motion to dismiss. Finally, inasmuch as no objection has been made to RTC’s motion to dismiss Home’s First Amended Complaint, that motion will be granted.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Summary judgment is proper “if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact, and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). In applying this standard, the court must construe all facts and reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1356, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986); Wright v. Southwestern Bell Tel. Co., 925 F.2d 1288 (10th Cir.1991).

Once the moving party has carried its burden, Rule 56(e) “requires the nonmoving party to go beyond the pleadings and by ... affidavits, or by the ‘depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file,’ designate ‘specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.’” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2553, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Gonzales v. Millers Casualty Ins. Co., 923 F.2d 1417, 1419 (10th Cir.1991).1 The non-[333]*333moving party must “make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party’s case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial.” Lujan v. National Wildlife Fed’n, — U.S.-, 110 S.Ct. 3177, 3186, 111 L.Ed.2d 695 (1990) (quoting Celotex Corp., 477 U.S. at 322, 106 S.Ct. at 2552).

In considering whether there exists a genuine issue of material fact, the court does not weigh the evidence but instead inquires whether a reasonable jury, faced with the evidence presented, could return a verdict for the nonmoving party. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510-11, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Clifton v. Craig, 924 F.2d 182, 183 (10th Cir.1991).2 Finally, all material facts asserted by the moving party shall be deemed admitted unless specifically controverted by the opposing party. U.S.Ct.D.Utah Civ.R.P. 5(e).

DISCUSSION

This memorandum decision and order addresses Ryan’s and Sutton’s cross-motions for summary judgment on Ryan’s prayer for declaratory relief.3 Home seeks a declaration that a Utah chartered savings and loan association may convert under Utah law to a Utah chartered commercial bank without obtaining the approval of the OTS. For the reasons that follow, this court holds the OTS had authority to place Home into receivership and that Sutton’s purported approval of Home’s conversion was a nullity inasmuch as he failed to obtain OTS approval required under controlling OTS regulations.

Following its determination that grounds existed for placing Home into receivership, the OTS issued an order appointing RTC as Home’s statutory receiver.

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768 F. Supp. 330, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18910, 1991 WL 117330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/home-mortgage-bank-v-ryan-utd-1991.