Slattery v. Roth

710 F.3d 1336, 2013 WL 1150716, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 5540
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedMarch 21, 2013
Docket2012-5041, 2012-5068
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 710 F.3d 1336 (Slattery v. Roth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Slattery v. Roth, 710 F.3d 1336, 2013 WL 1150716, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 5540 (Fed. Cir. 2013).

Opinion

PROST, Circuit Judge.

This is the second time this court has entertained appeals in this long-running litigation relating to the failure of Meritor Savings Bank (“Meritor”). Meritor failed in 1992 after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) breached a capital agreement with Meritor. We previously affirmed a decision of the United States Court of Federal Claims finding that the government was liable for the FDIC’s breach of contract, and awarding $276 million in “lost value” damages. Slattery v. United States, 583 F.3d 800, 815-18 (Fed.Cir.2009) (“Slattery I”), vacated and *900 reh’g en banc granted, 369 Fed.Appx. 142 (Fed.Cir.2010), reinstated as modified on reh’g en banc, 635 F.3d 1298 (Fed.Cir.2011) (en banc). On remand, the Court of Federal Claims dealt with two distinct questions raised by two distinct parties. First, applying 12 U.S.C. § 1821(d)(ll)— the statute governing the distribution of a receivership surplus by the FDIC acting in its capacity as a receiver (“FDIC-R”) — the court held that current Meritor shareholders are the proper recipients of the $276 million award. Slattery v. United States, 102 Fed.Cl. 27, 29-30 (2011) (“Slattery II”); see also Slattery v. United States, No. 93-CV-280 (Fed.Cl. Dec. 15, 2011) (Final Order) (“Slattery III”). Second, the court denied a motion to intervene filed by John R. McCarron, a former Meritor employee, on the grounds of lack of subject matter jurisdiction and issue and claim preclusion. Slattery II, 102 Fed.Cl. at 30-31.

Intervenors Steven Roth and Interstate Properties (collectively “Roth”) — former shareholders who owned shares of Meritor at the time of its failure but later sold their shares — appeal from an order of the Court of Federal Claims directing the FDIC-R to distribute the receivership surplus to current shareholders. Mr. McCarron appeals the Court of Federal Claims’ denial of his motion to intervene. The primary issues raised on appeal are whether the Court of Federal Claims properly: (1) construed 12 U.S.C. § 1821(d)(ll) as requiring distribution of the receivership surplus to current shareholders, instead of to former shareholders like Roth; and (2) denied Mr. McCarron’s motion to intervene. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

Background

A. Meritor’s Failure

In 1982, the FDIC sought to save a failing Pennsylvania bank, the Western Savings Society of Philadelphia (“Western”), through merger with a solvent bank. Meritor 1 and the FDIC agreed that Meritor would merge with Western. 2 To facilitate the merger, the FDIC agreed that Meritor could treat as “goodwill” the difference between the assets and liabilities Meritor assumed from Western and that Meritor could use this goodwill as a capital asset for purposes of meeting the FDIC’s capital requirements for banks. In 1988, the FDIC breached this capital-related agreement by no longer recognizing the goodwill resulting from the Western acquisition as capital on Meritor’s books. As a result, Meritor no longer satisfied the FDIC’s capital requirements. Meritor later failed and, on December 11, 1992, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Banking took possession of Meritor and appointed the FDIC as receiver.

At the time of Meritor’s failure and seizure in December 1992, Roth owned more than 1.7 million shares of Meritor stock. In September 1993, however, Roth sold his shares for $0.03 per share, receiving a total of approximately $51,000.

B. Roth’s Claim

In 1993, Frank Slattery, an owner of Meritor stock, filed suit in the Court of Federal Claims, asserting a shareholder derivative action on behalf of Meritor for breach of contract by the FDIC, as well as *901 a class action on behalf of Meritor’s shareholders at the time Meritor was put into receivership. In 1996, Mr. Slattery — citing the fact that a market for Meritor stock had developed and some shareholders had sold their stock — amended the complaint to redefine the putative class as consisting of shareholders of Meritor as of the date of judgment in the case, not at the time of seizure.

In light of Mr. Slattery’s amendment to the complaint, Roth sought leave to intervene in the proceedings, which the Court of Federal Claims granted. Roth alleged that as a Meritor shareholder at the time it went into receivership, he was entitled to a portion of any receivership surplus under 12 U.S.C. § 1821. He asserted claims against the FDIC-R based on its failure to distribute to Roth his portion of the receivership surplus. However, the court postponed consideration of Roth’s claims until after a final determination of Mr. Slat-tery’s claims.

The Court of Federal Claims ultimately dismissed Mr. Slattery’s class action but allowed him to pursue his shareholder derivative action for breach of contract. Mr. Slattery prevailed on the derivative claim, and the Court of Federal Claims awarded approximately $872 million in damages. As for Roth, the Court of Federal Claims dismissed his complaint, ruling that it lacked jurisdiction to hear his claims because the FDIC, in its capacity as receiver, is not “the United States” and therefore cannot be sued under the Tucker Act.

On appeal, this court affirmed the Court of Federal Claims’ finding that the government was liable for the FDIC’s breach of contract. Slattery I, 583 F.3d at 815-16. We also affirmed, in part, the damages award, allowing $276 million in “lost value” damages based on Meritor’s market valuation immediately before the FDIC’s breach, on the theory that the breach initiated a chain of events leading to the bank’s seizure and the loss of all shareholder value. Id. at 817-18. With respect to Roth, we reversed the Court of Federal Claims’ dismissal of his claims on jurisdictional grounds, although “[w]e expressed] no opinion on the merits of [his] claims.” Id. at 829. We remanded the case to the Court of Federal Claims for further proceedings, including consideration of Roth’s claims relating to the receivership surplus. Id.

On remand, Mr. Slattery moved for a partial final judgment against the government for the $276 million damages award affirmed on appeal, and for an order directing the FDIC-R to distribute the award to Meritor’s current shareholders immediately, while reserving a portion pending the outcome of Roth’s claims.' Roth filed a cross-motion, requesting that the Court of Federal Claims order the FDIC-R to distribute the $276 million award to former shareholders like him who owned shares of Meritor at the time of its seizure in December 1992. The government opposed Roth’s motion, contending that 12 U.S.C.

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Bluebook (online)
710 F.3d 1336, 2013 WL 1150716, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 5540, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/slattery-v-roth-cafc-2013.