Ammann v. Home Investment Co.

• Decision Date: 17 May 1957
• Docket Number: No. 14587,14632,14587
• Citation: 243 F.2d 748
• Parties: A. V. AMMANN, George K. Bramley, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Appellants, v. HOME INVESTMENT CO. et al., Appellees. LONG BEACH FEDERAL SAVINGS & LOAN ASSOCIATION, Title Service Company, Robert H. Wallis, Appellants, v. FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK OF SAN FRANCISCO et al., Appellees (two cases).
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

243 F.2d 748 (1957)

A. V. AMMANN, George K. Bramley, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Appellants, v. HOME INVESTMENT CO. et al., Appellees.

LONG BEACH FEDERAL SAVINGS & LOAN ASSOCIATION, Title Service Company, Robert H. Wallis, Appellants, v. FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK OF SAN FRANCISCO et al., Appellees (two cases).

Nos. 14587, 14632, Undocketed.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

April 15, 1957.

Rehearing Denied May 17, 1957.

George Cochran Doub, Asst. Atty. Gen., Paul A. Sweeney, Donald B. MacGuineas, Attorneys, Dept. of Justice, Mose Silverman, Asst. General Counsel, Home Loan Bank Board, Washington, D. C., Verne Dusenbery, Portland, Ore., Philip H. Angell, Robert M. Adams, Jr., San Francisco, Cal., Sylvester Hoffmann, Los Angeles, Cal., for appellants in No. 14587 and for appellees in No. 14632.

Charles K. Chapman, John D. Miller, F. Henry NeCasek, Long Beach, Cal., Wyckoff Westover, Raymond Tremaine, Los Angeles, Cal., for appellees in No. 14587 and for appellants in No. 14632.

Before STEPHENS, HEALY and BONE, Circuit Judges.

BONE, Circuit Judge.

I.

We have before us for disposition in the instant proceeding a motion of movents Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, (hereafter referred to as "Bank") Home Loan Bank Board, A. V. Ammann and George K. Bramley praying for an order of this Court which directs remand and dismissal of certain appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California which are now pending in this Court. We set out verbatim in the margin the pertinent portions of the motion of the moving parties.¹

Parties in and to the Mallonee Litigation who are before us opposing the granting of the motion of movents in the instant proceeding are: Long Beach Federal Savings and Loan Association; Mallonee, Fergus and Bucklin, as the Shareholders Protective Committee of Long Beach Federal Savings and Loan Association; Title Service Company, John D. Willhoit; Robert H. Wallis; Home Investment Company; First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Bellflower, and their respective attorneys. Said Long Beach Federal Savings and Loan Association will sometimes be referred to herein as "Association." All of these parties (save possibly Willhoit and the Bellflower Association) have been active participants in this litigation since its inception in 1946.

The motion of movents in the instant proceeding presents a phase of a controversy extending over a period of more than ten years. It has frequently been referred to as the "Mallonee Litigation," or the "Mallonee Case," and its boundaries have been obscured by innumerable complexities enshrined in masses of pleadings which long ago produced a record of unmanageable proportions. This long litigation has been the subject of several opinions of this Court which we note in the margin,² and it has also been before the Supreme Court upon a number of occasions. Much of its almost incredible history is set out in the several opinions and decisions cited in the various footnotes appended to this opinion. The latest opinion and decision of this Court was issued on July 18, 1955 in what was designated as Proceeding No. 14378 in this Court and is reported in 225 F.2d 349. The moving parties herein rely heavily on this opinion and decision, and for convenience it will herein be generally referred to as "Proceeding No. 14378."

In and by our decision in Proceeding No. 14378, this Court issued its Writ of Mandamus directed to the Honorable Pierson M. Hall, District Judge of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of California, Central Division (also sometimes referred to herein as Judge of the District Court, or as the lower court), the full text of our said Writ appearing at pages 386 to 390 of our above noted decision. This Writ ordered and directed (inter alia) the said Judge, upon receipt of our said Writ to

"(1) Dismiss forthwith Civil Action No. 5421 and all pleadings and proceedings therein in said District Court; and (2) to dismiss such of the following pleadings in Civil Action 13979 in said District Court as have not heretofore been dismissed, to wit:

(a) "Cross-Claim filed by Long Beach Federal Savings and Loan Association

(b) "Third party complaint filed by Long Beach Federal Savings and Loan Association

(c) "Complaint in intervention and interpleader of Title Service Company

(d) "Complaint in intervention of Robert H. Wallis

(e) "Complaint in intervention of John D. Willhoit

(f) "Cross-claim of Home Investment Co.

(g) "and all other cross-claims, third party complaints, interventions and interpleaders, motions and proceedings in said action No. 13979, which bring in question (a) the validity of the appointment of A. V. Ammann, as Conservator of Long Beach Federal Savings and Loan Association; and (b) that said A. V. Ammann was validly authorized to act as the Conservator of said Long Beach Federal Savings and Loan Association, during his tenure as Conservator; (c) that said Mallonee, Bucklin and Fergus and said Long Beach Federal Savings and Loan Association are precluded by their failure to resort to the administrative remedy tendered them by the Federal Home Loan Bank Administration in connection with the appointment and conduct of said Conservator, from obtaining any judicial relief based on the alleged invalidity of the appointment of said A. V. Ammann as Conservator of said Long Beach Federal Savings and Loan Association or on his alleged lack of authority to act as the Conservator of said Association during his tenure as Conservator; (d) the legality of the action of the Federal Home Loan Bank Administration in liquidating, reorganizing and dissolving the Federal Home Loan Bank of Los Angeles, in transferring its assets and liabilities to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Portland, in changing the name of said Federal Home Loan Bank of Portland to Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and in moving it to San Francisco; or (e) the present legal existence of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco as the duly authorized Federal Home Loan Bank for the Eleventh Home Loan Bank district as readjusted by Federal Home Loan Bank Administration Order No. 5083, dated March 29, 1946." (Emphasis supplied.)

Thereafter, and on November 4, 1955, the said lower court filed with this Court a certificate bearing date of November 3, 1955, setting forth that "in accordance with the * * * provisions of said `Writ of Mandamus' it is so ordered, adjudged and decreed." The lower court further certified to this Court under said date that the Clerk of that court had also complied with the terms of our Writ of Mandamus insofar as he was directed to do so, as evidenced by the certificate of compliance executed by said Clerk.

This Court was thus formally advised, and therefore must and does assume, that each and every pleading referred to in our said Writ of Mandamus issued in Proceeding No. 14378, along with "all other cross-claims, third party complaints, interventions and interpleaders, motions and proceedings in said Action No. 13979," which under our said Writ were directed to be dismissed by the lower court, were in fact dismissed by that court under its judgment and decree of November 3, 1955, just above noted.

Aside from the command in our above noted Writ of Mandamus which directed the judge of the lower court to forthwith dismiss Action No. 5421 and all pleadings and proceedings in that action, our said Writ also ordered and directed the dismissal of certain pleadings in Action No. 13979. Action No. 13979 was frequently referred to in our (latest) decision in Proceeding No. 14378 as the "note case,"² (see 196 F.2d at pages 354, 362, 363, 364, 365, 367, 370, 376, 377, 385) and for convenience that term may be used herein to identify Action No. 13979. It is still pending in the lower court.

We cite in the margin the several reported opinions and decisions of the lower court,³ and any reference herein to that court is also intended to apply to and include its presiding judge. The latest reported decision of the lower court was dated September 16, 1954, and appears in 122 F.Supp. 960. A preceding decision of the lower court, dated June 10, 1954 (as corrected June 29, 1954) and reported in 122 F.Supp. 401, directed the formulation and subsequent entry of the orders and/or judgments which appear in the decision issued on September 16, 1954. These two decisions of the lower court assume vital importance in the instant proceeding because they gave rise to the issues which were presented to and directly decided by this Court in Proceeding No. 14378, supra. They also related directly to and (taken together) disposed of vital issues then being tendered for decision in the note case. The final adjudication appears in 122 F.Supp. 960.

As appears in our decision in Proceeding No. 14378, 225 F.2d at page 351, the petition upon which that decision was based was filed by petitioners with this Court on June 4, 1954. This petition was submitted after lengthy argument of counsel thereon, and remained pending in this Court until our said decision of July 18, 1955 in Proceeding No. 14378 was issued.

As our decision therein indicates, the respondents before this Court in Proceeding No. 14378 were Honorable Pierson M. Hall, Judge of the lower court and various litigants in the Mallonee Litigation, to wit: (1) Association, (2) Mallonee, Bucklin and Fergus, acting as the Shareholders Protective Committee of Association, (3) Title Service Company, (4) Robert H. Wallis, (5) First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Wilmington, (6) Home Investment Company, (7) George Turner, (8) First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Bellflower and (9) John D. Willhoit.

On Movents' motion in the instant proceeding, all of said respondents named in Proceeding No. 14378 were before us save and except First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Wilmington and George Turner.

At or about the time of the...