AG Becker Inc. v. BOARD OF GOVERNORS, ETC.

• Decision Date: 28 July 1981
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 8-2614,80-2730.
• Citation: 519 F. Supp. 602
• Parties: A. G. BECKER INCORPORATED, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF the FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM, et al., Defendants. SECURITIES INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF the FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

519 F. Supp. 602

A. G. BECKER INCORPORATED, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF the FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM, et al., Defendants.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF the FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. Nos. 8-2614, 80-2730.

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

July 28, 1981.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Harvey L. Pitt, Henry A. Hubschman, Edson G. Case, Jr., Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Kampleman, Washington, D. C., for Becker.

John M. Liftin, James B. Weidner, Janet R. Zimmer, Rogers & Wells, Washington, D. C., for SIA.

Richard M. Ashton, Neal L. Petersen, James V. Mattingly, Jr., Federal Reserve Board, Washington, D. C., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JOYCE HENS GREEN, District Judge.

Pending before the Court in these consolidated actions are the parties' cross motions for summary judgment and the defendant's alternative motion to dismiss, with supporting memoranda. Plaintiffs are A. G. Becker, Inc. ("Becker"), a securities broker and dealer registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Securities Industry Association ("SIA"), an organization representing over five hundred securities brokers and dealers. They challenge a decision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("the Board"), which, with its individual members, are the defendants in this action. The dispute presents provocative questions concerning the delicately balanced regulatory system enacted by Congress to control the activities of the nation's banks in financial markets.

In the summer of 1978, Bankers Trust Company ("Bankers Trust"), a state chartered member bank of the Federal Reserve System, began offering for sale third party commercial paper, that is, commercial paper issued by corporations not related to the bank.¹ This effort included a marketing campaign aimed at issuers of commercial paper, whereby Bankers Trust agreed to act as a seller of commercial paper, performing services competitive with securities dealers. As part of this advertising, Bankers Trust offered to lend the issuer of commercial paper money equal to the amount of paper to be sold and, if the bank were unable to sell all of the issuer's paper, to take back notes reflecting the amount of paper unsold.

Becker and SIA expressed concern to the staff of the Board of Governors as to the legality of Bankers Trust's actions in a letter sent in November, 1978. Following this correspondence, plaintiffs, along with the General Counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and Bankers Trust, filed memoranda arguing over whether the sale by Bankers Trust of third party commercial paper violated certain provisions of the Banking Act of 1933 known as the Glass-Steagall Act. On June 28, 1979, after a meeting with representatives of Becker and SIA, the General Counsel of the Board issued a document entitled "Commercial Paper Activities of Commercial Banks: A Legal Analysis," which concluded that state member banks may, subject to certain limitations, sell third party commercial paper. The General Counsel offered, upon request by Becker or SIA, to recommend that the Board review his opinion. SIA, on July 26, 1979, and Becker, on January 31, 1980, requested that the Board review the General Counsel's opinion and that, in connection with that review, they initiate proceedings against Bankers Trust for violating the Glass-Steagall Act.²

The Board took up the matter presented by the Becker and SIA petitions and, on September 26, 1980, issued a letter and a Statement Regarding Petitions to Initiate Enforcement Actions declaring that commercial paper was not a security within the meaning of the Glass-Steagall Act and that therefore Bankers Trust could legally sell third party commercial paper. The Board expressed concern at some potentially unsound practices that might have developed as a result of its ruling, and therefore commenced the drafting of guidelines governing the sale by state member banks of commercial paper.³ Soon thereafter, the plaintiffs commenced this action seeking judicial review of the Board's conclusion that Bankers Trust was acting within the parameters of the Glass-Steagall Act in offering for sale third party commercial paper.⁴

Surfacing initially in this controversy is the question whether this court, or any court, has jurisdiction to hear this dispute and grant plaintiffs their requested relief. It is beyond dispute that agency action is reviewable absent a showing that Congress specifically and clearly intended to preclude judicial oversight. The Board in this case has the burden of demonstrating that its decision to permit state member banks to sell third party commercial paper is insulated from review. See Dunlop v. Bachowski, 421 U.S. 560, 567, 95 S.Ct. 1851, 1857, 44 L.Ed.2d 377 (1975); Barlow v. Collins, 397 U.S. 159, 166, 90 S.Ct. 832, 837, 25 L.Ed.2d 192 (1970); Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 140 n.2, 87 S.Ct. 1507, 1511, 18 L.Ed.2d 681 (1967). In Independent Bankers Association of America v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 500 F.2d 812 (D.C.Cir.1974), the Court of Appeals declared that "non-reviewability must be established by a clear showing of Congressional intent to preclude review." Id. at 814. Especially where an agency has resolved a pure question of law, which the Board did when it decided that commercial paper was not subject to the proscriptions of the Glass-Steagall Act,⁵ courts have a special competence and judicial review is clearly the norm. See Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Securities and Exchange Commission, 606 F.2d 1031, 1048 (D.C.Cir.1979).

The Board contends that the availability of judicial review is governed by the Financial Institutions Supervisory Act of 1966, as amended, which established procedures for the issuance of cease and desist orders by federal agencies with authority over the banking industry. Alternatively, it maintains that its refusal to commence enforcement proceedings against Bankers Trust is a matter committed to its discretion by law and therefore nonreviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act. The plaintiffs strenuously reject that Congress has entrusted the Board with absolute discretion over this matter, suggesting that the Board's interpretation of the Glass-Steagall Act is subject to the normal presumption favoring judicial review absent a showing by the Board of clear deprivation of the Court's jurisdiction. Neither ground for nonreviewability cited by the Board, plaintiffs contend, overcomes the doctrine that permits courts to review agency decision on questions of law.

The Board's initial authority for its argument that jurisdiction lacks is the Financial Institutions Supervisory Act of 1966, as amended, specifically 12 U.S.C. §§ 1818(h), (i). This legislation established procedures for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Board to regulate the nations financial houses and to enforce against unsafe or unsound banking practices. It provides, in pertinent part:

(h)(2) ... any person required by an order issued under this section to cease and desist from any of the violations or practices stated therein, may obtain a review of any order ... by the filing in the court of appeals of the United States for the circuit in which the home office of the bank is located, or in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ... a written petition praying that the order of the agency be modified, terminated, or set aside ....

....

(i)(1) The appropriate Federal banking agency may in its discretion apply to the United States district court ... within the jurisdiction of which the home office of the bank is located, for the enforcement of any effective and outstanding notice or order issued under this section, and such courts shall have jurisdiction and power to order and require compliance herewith; but except as otherwise provided in this section no court shall have jurisdiction to affect by injunction or otherwise the issuance or enforcement of any notice or order under this section, or to review, modify, suspend, terminate, or set aside any such notice or order.

Under the Board's view, its decision not to institute cease and desist proceedings and its judgment that commercial paper is not a security under the Glass-Steagall Act are insulated from judicial scrutiny by these provisions. A decision not to adjudicate whether Bankers Trust's conduct was illegal is, in the Board's opinion, analogous to decisions by the Federal Trade Commission and the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board exercising their "prosecutorial discretion." See Moog Industries, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission, 355 U.S. 411, 78 S.Ct. 377, 2 L.Ed.2d 370 (1958); Federal Trade Commission v. Klesner, 280 U.S. 19, 46 S.Ct. 102, 70 L.Ed. 404 (1929) (both holding unreviewable a decision by the Federal Trade Commission not to institute cease and desist proceedings under section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45) and National Labor Relations Board v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 421 U.S. 132, 138, 95 S.Ct. 1504, 1510, 44 L.Ed.2d 29 (1975); Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 182, 87 S.Ct. 903, 912, 17 L.Ed.2d 842 (1967) (holding unreviewable a decision of the General Counsel of the Board not to issue an unfair labor practice complaint). The Board also finds shelter for this position in the language of the statute quoted above, in that an injunction directing the Board begin a proceeding to prevent Bankers Trust to sell third party commercial paper would, of necessity, "affect" the issuance of a cease and desist order and thus contravene 12 U.S.C. § 1818(i)(1).

The Board, however, ignores the procedural posture of the proceedings before it and before this Court. 12 U.S.C. § 1818(i) is a narrow statute, applying only to an "order issued under this section." § 1818 establishes a...