La Van v. United States

53 Fed. Cl. 290, 2002 U.S. Claims LEXIS 208, 2002 WL 1964015
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedAugust 20, 2002
DocketNo. 90-581C
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 53 Fed. Cl. 290 (La Van 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
La Van v. United States, 53 Fed. Cl. 290, 2002 U.S. Claims LEXIS 208, 2002 WL 1964015 (uscfc 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

FIRESTONE, Judge.

This case is one of the eases related to United States v. Winstar Corp., 518 U.S. 839, 116 S.Ct. 2432, 135 L.Ed.2d 964 (1996). In Winstar, the Supreme Court ruled that passage of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989, Pub.L. No. 101-73, 103 Stat. 183 (1989) (“FIRREA”) (codified as amended in various sections of 12 § U.S.C.), caused a breach of the contract that the government and Wins-tar Corp. had entered into in connection with Winstar’s takeover of a failing savings and loan. The plaintiffs and plaintiff-intervenor in this case seek to extend the holding in Winstar to their circumstances.

The matters presently pending before the court are the parties’ cross-motions for partial summary judgment on the plaintiffs’ and plaintiff-intervenor’s breach of contract claims against the United States. Plaintiffs Richard C. LaVan, Carmen Lullo, Ronald S. Kraar, Donald Bialon, and James Skozek (“plaintiffs”) and plaintiff-intervenor Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) allege that, as in Winstar, passage of FIRREA resulted in a breach of the promises made in their agreement with the government when they or the predecessor shareholder invested the capital necessary to convert a failing bank — Century Savings & Loan Association (“CSLA”) — into a federally-chartered stock thrift, called Century Federal Savings Bank (“Century”).

The government counters that the holding in Winstar does not extend to the type of transaction at issue in this case, and thus FIRREA did not result in the breach of any contract between the government, plaintiffs, and plaintiff-intervenor. In the alternative, the government argues that even if the contract at issue was breached, none of the plaintiffs before this court have standing to seek damages for a breach of that contract.1

For the reasons that follow, the court concludes that the passage of FIRREA resulted in a breach of contract, and that plaintiffs Richard C. LaVan, Carmen Lullo, and the estate of Stanley Skozek have standing to maintain a claim for damages. The court further concludes that the damage claims of Ronald Kraar and Royce Bialon must be dismissed for lack of standing. The FDIC’s breach of contract claims are also dismissed for lack of standing.

BACKGROUND

A. Facts

The following facts are not in dispute. In 1950, CSLA was chartered as a state mutual savings association. Starting in the 1980’s, CSLA’s financial position began to deteriorate, and by 1983, CSLA was facing serious financial losses. At the time, CSLA estimated that it would become insolvent in less than one year. Pis.’ Ex. Q2 Faced with these losses, CSLA’s Board of Directors decided that in order to save the thrift, CSLA should convert from a mutual thrift to a federally-chartered stock thrift.

In accordance with the regulations governing such conversions, CSLA’s Board submitted a letter application to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (“FHLBB”) on July 25, 1983, seeking permission to convert from a state-chartered mutual association to a federally-chartered stock association. Under the regulations then in force, CSLA’s Board was required to obtain the FHLBB’s approval of the conversion, as well as approval of CSLA’s charter, bylaws, and change in control. In the application, four “acquirors” — Richard LaVan, John Lence, Carmen Lullo, and Stanley Skozek — proposed to infuse capital into [293]*293the new bank through the purchase of stock worth approximately $300,000. On September 20, 1983, at the request of the FHLBB, the acquirors’ application was amended in order to provide more capital. The correspondence from the applicants’ counsel states that, “after numerous discussions” with the Principal Supervisory Agent (“PSA”) at the Chicago-FHLBB, the applicants agreed to increase the capital contribution to $520,000.3 In this letter, the acquirors also proposed two separate procedures for the acquisition of Century: the acquirors could either create a holding company or proceed in their individual capacities.4 FDIC’s Ex. 3.

As part of the application process, CSLA’s Board provided the FHLBB with a “Proposed Plan of Rehabilitation” which outlined CSLA’s plans to make the new institution profitable in both the short- and long-term. The Proposed Plan included a three-year plan to bring the newly-converted thrift to profitability by infusing capital and recognizing supervisory goodwill through “push-down accounting.”5 The Proposed Plan provided:

The success of the plan for rehabilitating rests on two key points:
Converting the Association [CSLA] from a mutual to a stock association accompanied by the sale of ... stock.
Recording this transaction under “push-down” method of accounting.

FDIC’s Ex. 1 at 19. In the Appendix of the application, an independent accounting firm retained by the acquirors — Selden, Fox and Assoc., Ltd. (“Selden, Fox”) — emphasized that the projections upon which the acquirors relied in making them application were based on “amortizing goodwill and all other intangibles over thirty-five years on a straight line method.” FDIC’s Ex. 1 at 48.

In the course of evaluating CSLA’s voluntary supervisory conversion application, the PSA recognized that the applicants were eligible for the supervisory conversion because Century’s projected insolvency was probably not reasonably reversible without it. FDIC’s Ex. 2 at 4. The PSA also noted in its evaluation memorandum that a waiver would be needed to allow the applicants to qualify for the push-down accounting treatment they requested for the conversion. More specifically, the PSA noted that the applicants’ approach was not in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”), and also stated that the State of Illinois had raised a question about the use of “push-down” accounting on the grounds that “insiders” (referring to the acquirors who were also members of the existing CSLA Board of Directors) were proposing to purchase the stock to effectuate the conversion. The PSA stated that neither issue should be a bar to accepting the applicants’ proposal. FDIC’s Ex. 3 at 5. Based on its evaluation, the PSA finally recommended that the Office of Examinations and Supervision (“OES”) (another of the FHLBB’s approval arms) approve the applicants’ proposal to use push-down accounting and amortize goodwill over thirty-five years.

The Director of OES took the PSA’s recommendations and prepared its own recommendation for the FHLBB’s Office of General Counsel. (The FHLBB had delegated the authority to approve voluntary supervisory conversions to the Office of General Counsel.) Before approving the conversion, the OES explained that final FHLBB approval by the General Counsel would require a finding that: (1) the existing institution was or would soon become insolvent; (2) there would be no equity value realizable upon liquidation by [294]*294the members of the insured institution; and (3) the new institution would be viable.

Based on its review of the PSA’s recommendation, the OES forwarded its own recommendation in favor of the conversion to the General Counsel.

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Related

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382 F.3d 1340 (Federal Circuit, 2004)
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57 Fed. Cl. 521 (Federal Claims, 2003)
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La Van v. United States
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54 Fed. Cl. 741 (Federal Claims, 2002)
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54 Fed. Cl. 554 (Federal Claims, 2002)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
53 Fed. Cl. 290, 2002 U.S. Claims LEXIS 208, 2002 WL 1964015, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/la-van-v-united-states-uscfc-2002.