Thompson v. Federal Deposit Insurance

736 P.2d 914, 241 Kan. 328, 1987 Kan. LEXIS 332
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedMay 1, 1987
DocketNo. 59,546
StatusPublished

This text of 736 P.2d 914 (Thompson v. Federal Deposit Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thompson v. Federal Deposit Insurance, 736 P.2d 914, 241 Kan. 328, 1987 Kan. LEXIS 332 (kan 1987).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Herd, J.:

Appellants Earl and Lucy Thompson and Frederick and Louise Hartwig appeal from the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of appellee Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

The facts are not in dispute. On August 8, 1980, the former Mission State Bank & Trust Company (Bank) was declared insolvent by the Kansas State Bank Commissioner and the FDIC was appointed as receiver. On that same day, the FDIC as receiver sold certain assets of the Bank to the FDIC in its corporate capacity.

The appellants had borrowed $1,050,000 from the Bank as evidenced by two identical promissory notes, each of which provided it was subject to the Kansas Uniform Consumer Credit Code (UCCC), K.S.A. 16a-l-101 et seq. The two promissory notes and security therefore were part of the assets of the Bank which the FDIC, as receiver, sold and assigned to FDIC in its corporate capacity. Appellants paid both notes in full, then filed a declaratory judgment action on January 9, 1984, alleging the FDIC had [329]*329violated the provisions of the UCCC by taking assignment of and undertaking direct collection of payments from or enforcement of rights against the appellants arising from supervised loans when the FDIC was neither a supervised lender nor an exempt organization as defined in the code. Appellants claimed the notes were void as a result of the alleged violations, and sought recovery of statutory penalties, attorney fees, and costs.

Appellants later amended their petition to claim in the alternative that the FDIC in its corporate capacity was not the owner of the promissory notes which are the basis of the action because it failed, in its capacity as receiver, to obtain the proper order from the Kansas State Bank Commissioner as required by 12 U.S.C. §§ 1821(e), 1823(d) (1982), and K.S.A. 9-1304 and K.S.A. 1986 Supp. 9-1906.

On April 1, 1985, the district court dismissed appellants’ alternative cause of action finding appellants did not have standing to enforce the provisions of K.S.A. 9-1304 and 12 U.S.C. § 1823(d). On March 12, 1986, the trial court issued a second memorandum decision granting summary judgment to the FDIC, holding it was not required to comply with the licensing provisions of the UCCC. Appellants appeal.

The first issue is whether the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution prevents the State of Kansas from requiring the FDIC to acquire a license in order to carry out the duties assigned to it by Congress.

In 1981, when the FDIC as receiver sold appellants’ notes to the FDIC in its corporate capacity, the UCCC provided the following requirements for making supervised loans:

“Unless a person is a supervised financial organization; or is an agricultural credit corporation organized under the laws of the United States or the state of Kansas; or has first obtained a license from the administrator authorizing such person to make supervised loans, such person shall not engage in the business of
“(1) making supervised loans; or
“(2) taking assignments of and undertaking direct collection of payments from or enforcement of rights against debtors arising from supervised loans, but such person may collect and enforce for three months without a license if the person promptly applies for a license and such person’s application has not been denied. Nothing in this section shall be construed to require the licensing of an attorney who is forwarded contracts for collection.” (Emphasis added.) K.S.A. 16a-2-301.

[330]*330K.S.A. 16a-2-301 was amended in 1985 to provide as follows:

“Unless a person is a supervised financial organization; or is an agricultural credit corporation organized under the laws of the United States or the state of Kansas; or has first obtained a license from the administrator authorizing such person to make supervised loans; oris the federal deposit insurance corporation acting in its corporate capacity or as receiver, such person shall not engage in the business of
“(1) making supervised loans; or
“(2) taking assignments of and undertaking direct collection of payments from or enforcement of rights against debtors arising from supervised loans . . . .” (Emphasis added.) K.S.A. 1986 Supp. 16a-2-301.

While the current statute clearly exempts the FDIC from its licensing requirements, appellants argue the law in effect at the time of the transactions in question here required unsupervised lenders to obtain a license from the administrator before taking assignment of and undertaking direct collection of payments from or enforcement of rights against debtors arising from supervised loans. Appellants reason that FDIC did not have the authority to take assignment of their loans since FDIC was not (1) a supervised financial organization, or (2) an agricultural credit corporation; nor did the FDIC promptly (or at any time) apply for a license after undertaking the assignment and collection of the notes.

The FDIC contends, and the district court held, that the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution prohibits the state from requiring the FDIC to obtain a license under the UCCC.

The supremacy clause, Article 6 of the United States Constitution, provides in pertinent part:

“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”

The United States Supreme Court first interpreted the supremacy clause in McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316, 4 L. Ed. 579 (1819). In McCulloch, the court was asked to determine the validity of an 1818 Maryland law which imposed a tax on “all Banks, or branches thereof, in the State of Maryland, not chartered by the legislature.” 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) at 317-18. [331]*331Congress had recently created a nationally chartered Bank of the United States and when McCulloch, the cashier of the Baltimore branch, refused to pay the tax, the State of Maryland filed suit to collect.

Chief Justice John Marshall, writing for a unanimous court in McCulloch, stated:

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Related

M'culloch v. State of Maryland
17 U.S. 316 (Supreme Court, 1819)
Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Gates
594 F. Supp. 36 (D. Kansas, 1984)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
736 P.2d 914, 241 Kan. 328, 1987 Kan. LEXIS 332, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thompson-v-federal-deposit-insurance-kan-1987.