Hometown Financial, Inc. v. United States

56 Fed. Cl. 477, 2003 U.S. Claims LEXIS 129, 2003 WL 21302928
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedMay 22, 2003
DocketNo. 90-843C
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 56 Fed. Cl. 477 (Hometown Financial, Inc. 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
Hometown Financial, Inc. v. United States, 56 Fed. Cl. 477, 2003 U.S. Claims LEXIS 129, 2003 WL 21302928 (uscfc 2003).

Opinion

OPINION

FIRESTONE, Judge.

The United States has moved for summary judgment with respect to all of plaintiffs’ (Hometown Financial, Inc. (“HFI”) and Con-[478]*478tinenta! Financial Holdings, Inc. (“CFH”)), and plaintiff-intervenor’s (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”)) damages claims.1

On August 23, 2002, the court held that the United States was potentially hable for damages arising from a breach of the conversion agreement between plaintiffs and the government, following the enactment of the Financial Institution, Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (“FIRREA”). In their pleadings, plaintiffs, HFI and CFH seek the following damages: (1) a return of their investment of $2.05 million, (2) their carrying costs, and (3) their lost profits. Plaintiffs’ Opposition to Summary Judgment at 11. Plaintiff-intervenor, FDIC, seeks damages for: (1) Hometown Federal Savings Bank’s (“New Hometown’s”) lost equity value as measured by the difference between the positive equity value New Hometown would have today but for the breach and the negative equity value of the New Hometown’s Receivership; or (2) alternatively, the value of the supervisory goodwill and the regulatory forbearance lost by the breach or restitution, as measured by the value of the benefit conferred on the government. Plaintiff-interve-nor’s Opposition to Summary Judgment at 2.

BACKGROUND FACTS

The background facts in this case are discussed in this court’s August 23, 2002 opinion, in which the court found that passage of FIRREA in 1989 resulted in a breach of contract regarding the government’s approval of the conversion of Hometown Federal Savings and Loan Association (“Old Hometown”) into New Hometown. The facts material to resolving the pending motion are undisputed, unless otherwise noted.

New Hometown was created in response to the deteriorating financial condition of Old Hometown, an Indiana mutual savings and loan association. In particular, on May 8, 1987, Old Hometown submitted a plan of conversion and a business plan. Old Hometown’s plan called for outside investors, including the principals of the National Capital Group (“NCG”), a Washington, D.C.-based thrift consulting firm, to acquire Old Hometown. The NCG principals were Philip Weintraub and Louis Mayberg. NCG was responsible for preparing the conversion and business plans for Old Hometown.

The business plan, submitted on March 23, 1987, called for a capital infusion of $2.05 million by a holding company, HFI, which would hold all the stock of the New Hometown thrift. During 1987, Old Hometown’s financial condition continued to deteriorate.

By letter dated December 22, 1987, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (“FHLBB”) provisionally approved the supervisory conversion. Subsequently, on March 1, 1988, plaintiffs and Old Hometown submitted a new business plan dated February 29, 1988. The new business plan proposed a revised structure under which a new entity, CFH, was introduced. CFH would be the majority shareholder in HFI, and the majority shareholders of CFH would be Messrs. Weintraub and Mayberg.

Under the March 1, 1998 business plan, the investors anticipated that total assets would increase in the first year from $56 million to $109 million, a 94.6 percent increase. In the second year, assets were projected to grow by 34.9 percent to $147 million. By the end of the third year of the plan, assets were projected to grow by 5.4 percent and reach $155 million.

[479]*479The parties agree that the proposed business plan stood in marked contrast to Old Hometown’s historical five-year compound growth rate of only 3.9 percent. Under the proposed business plan, the investors projected profitability by the end of the third quarter of the first year following the conversion.

The FHLBB granted final approval for the conversion of Old Hometown in Resolution 88-513, dated June 28, 1988. The FHLBB placed several stipulations on its action. Among other things, the resolution required plaintiffs to stipulate that the thrift would operate within the constraints of the business plan, “including the projected financial statements.” As noted above, the business plan also called for the infusion of $2.05 million of capital in the newly converted bank.

On June 30, 1988, New Hometown opened for business. In its first year of operation after conversion, New Hometown failed to attain the financial benchmarks in its business plan. New Hometown’s assets did not increase by 94.6 percent, as projected in the business plan, but increased by only 39.3 percent to $76,023,000. Similarly, New Hometown was not able to increase deposits by 99.3 percent to $98,171,000, as it had projected. Instead, deposit liabilities increased by only 25.3 percent to $67,877,000. Thus, instead of being profitable by the end of the third quarter, New Hometown lost another $311,000.

New Hometown had intended to reach its ambitious goals by marketing jumbo CDs for municipal accounts. One of the reasons that New Hometown could not achieve its goals was because of new legislation passed in April 1989 by the Indiana legislature that prohibited institutions from being a depository of state or municipal funds if the institution had a ratio of total capital to total assets of less than (1) the minimum required by the governmental supervisory body of the institution, or (2) three percent. Ind.Code Ann. § 5-13-8-1 (1989).

Because New Hometown could not meet this new criteria, it was precluded from continuing to act as a depository of state and municipal funds. As a result, New Hometown lost approximately $11 million in public deposits during the third quarter of 1989, and was precluded from accepting any such future municipal deposits.

There were several other reasons for New Hometown’s failure to achieve the goals in its business plan. For example, the business plan contemplated certain advances from the FHLBB which did not all materialize. The FHLBB also disapproved other proposed actions by New Hometown to grow the assets of the bank. The FHLBB disapproved New Hometown’s proposed acquisition of another thrift which would have provided for the recapitalization of the combined entity and would have resulted in New Hometown’s worth reaching three percent of its liabilities on a Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”) basis. In addition, the FHLBB rejected a New Hometown proposal to put loan production offices into a builder’s sales office. The FHLBB also placed limits on New Hometown’s ability to utilize certain types of deposits.2 As a result of these and other issues, identified by the bank examiners, and set forth below, New Hometown’s assets had shrunk by $7,409,000 or 9.7 percent, by the end of 1989. Between July 1989 and December 1989, New Hometown lost another $393,000. New Hometown management’s projected 1990 losses of $660,000.

Following passage of FIRREA, New Hometown failed to meet the redefined regulatory capital standards and was required to submit a capital plan detailing its method for coming into capital compliance. As of December 31, 1989, New Hometown had $5,696,925 of remaining supervisory goodwill on its books.

In response to FIRREA, in December 1989, New Hometown submitted a capital plan. As part of that plan, New Hometown relied upon the “understanding[s]” of the December 1987 “forbearance” letter it had obtained as part of the conversion process.

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

Related

Cacciapalle v. United States
Federal Claims, 2020
Css, LLC v. United States
Federal Claims, 2020
Hometown Financial, Inc. v. United States
409 F.3d 1360 (Federal Circuit, 2005)
American Capital Corp. v. United States
65 Fed. Cl. 241 (Federal Claims, 2005)
Holland v. United States
63 Fed. Cl. 147 (Federal Claims, 2004)
Hometown Financial, Inc. v. United States
60 Fed. Cl. 513 (Federal Claims, 2004)
Smith v. United States
58 Fed. Cl. 374 (Federal Claims, 2003)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
56 Fed. Cl. 477, 2003 U.S. Claims LEXIS 129, 2003 WL 21302928, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hometown-financial-inc-v-united-states-uscfc-2003.