F.D.I.C. v. Houde

• Decision Date: 08 March 1996
• Docket Number: 95-1854,Nos. 95-1853,s. 95-1853
• Citation: 90 F.3d 600
• Parties: 30 UCC Rep.Serv.2d 549 FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION, As Receiver For New Maine National Bank, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. Roland HOUDE and Ora Houde, Defendants, Appellees. FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION, As Receiver For New Maine National Bank, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. Roland HOUDE and Ora Houde, Defendants, Appellants. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 600

90 F.3d 600

30 UCC Rep.Serv.2d 549

FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION, As Receiver For New

Maine National Bank, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. Roland HOUDE and Ora Houde, Defendants, Appellees.

FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION, As Receiver For New

Maine National Bank, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. Roland HOUDE and Ora Houde, Defendants, Appellants.

Nos. 95-1853, 95-1854.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Heard March 8, 1996.

Decided July 24, 1996.

Jaclyn C. Taner, Counsel, Washington, DC, with whom Ann S. DuRoss, Assistant General Counsel, Colleen B. Bombardier, Senior Counsel, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Andrew Sparks, Paul E. Peck, John B. Emory and Drummond & Drummond, Portland, ME, were on briefs for plaintiff.

Jeffrey Bennett, Portland, ME, with whom Melinda J. Caterine, Clare S. Benedict and Bennett and Associates, P.A. were on briefs for defendants.

Before BOUDIN, Circuit Judge, CAMPBELL, Senior Circuit Judge, and LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

LEVIN H. CAMPBELL, Senior Circuit Judge.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") appeals from an order, entered in the United States District Court for the District of Maine, dismissing its complaint to collect the amount due on a $275,000 promissory note executed in 1986 by defendants Roland and Ora Houde and made payable to the Maine National Bank, and to foreclose on the mortgage securing the Houdes' indebtedness. The Houdes cross-appeal from the district court's denial of four pretrial motions. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the district court's order.

I.

In November 1986, Roland and Ora Houde borrowed $275,000 from the Maine National Bank ("MNB"), a federally insured national banking association, to finance a business venture. They executed a note and allonge made payable to MNB (collectively the "Note" or "Houde Note"), and secured by a mortgage on property located in Maine. After MNB declared insolvency in January 1991, ownership of the Note passed to the FDIC as receiver, the FDIC says. The FDIC also says that it transferred the Houde Note briefly to the New Maine National Bank ("NMNB"), a bridge bank set up by the FDIC. After the dissolution of NMNB in July 1991, many of its assets were purchased by Fleet Bank and the rest, as recounted by the FDIC, passed to the FDIC as the duly appointed receiver for NMNB. The FDIC asserts that the Note was among the remaining assets transferred to it. All parties agree, in any case, that the original Note was in the possession of the FDIC at trial.

The FDIC says that it hired Recoll Management Corporation ("Recoll") to manage the receivership assets of NMNB. The FDIC maintains that Recoll took over management of the Note as well as other obligations owed by the Houdes. These other obligations included loans from MNB to Turcotte Concrete, a corporation of which Mr. Houde was a 50% shareholder, that were guaranteed by the Houdes. Turcotte Concrete filed for bankruptcy in 1991, and as part of the bankruptcy proceeding, Recoll, on behalf of the FDIC, negotiated an agreement in June 1993 resolving Turcotte Concrete's debt (the "Conditional Amendment to Guaranty Agreements and Promissory Notes," or "Conditional Agreement"). According to the FDIC, Recoll separately negotiated with the Houdes concerning their personal debt evidenced by the Note. The Houdes, however, contend that the Conditional Agreement resolving Turcotte Concrete's obligations, by its own terms, released their personal obligations on the Note. On this theory, they have made no payments on the Note since June 1993.

In July 1994, the FDIC sued the Houdes in Maine state court to collect the amount due on the Note and to foreclose on the mortgage securing the debt. The Houdes removed the action to the United States District Court for the District of Maine and then moved to dismiss or for summary judgment on the ground that their personal indebtedness on the Note had been discharged by the Conditional Agreement. The district court denied the motions in September 1994, concluding that there were genuine issues of fact as to the meaning and intent of the Conditional Agreement. In early 1995, the Houdes moved for judgment on the pleadings as well as for summary judgment, reiterating their claim that the Conditional Agreement unambiguously released them from the Note. In the Houdes' Statement of Undisputed Material Facts submitted in connection with their summary judgment motion, the Houdes acknowledged that the FDIC had been appointed as receiver for MNB. The Houdes also moved to dismiss, or for a default judgment based on a claim that the servicing agreement between the FDIC and Recoll violated the Maine champerty statute. See 17-A M.R.S.A. § 516(1). The FDIC cross-moved for summary judgment. In May 1995, the district court denied these motions.

A jury trial was scheduled for early June 1995. Shortly before trial, the FDIC filed a motion in limine seeking to preclude the Houdes from questioning the FDIC's standing to recover on the Note. The Houdes opposed this motion. The district court denied the motion without addressing the merits of the standing issue. At trial, the parties stipulated that (1) the FDIC possessed the original Note, (2) the Houdes' signatures on the documents were authentic, and (3) the Houdes had made no payments on the Note since June 1993. The FDIC offered in evidence the original Note which was payable to MNB and had not been indorsed to any other entity. The FDIC called as a witness James Golden, the FDIC account officer, who had only been the custodian of the Houde file for the two weeks prior to trial. Golden testified to the series of events occurring after the failure of MNB up until the time of trial: (1) the FDIC was appointed receiver of MNB, (2) the Note passed to NMNB, a bridge bank set up by the FDIC, (3) the FDIC dissolved NMNB, (4) the Note passed to the FDIC as receiver for NMNB. Golden testified that the Note was not among the NMNB assets that Fleet Bank purchased from the FDIC. The FDIC did not offer or have with it any public or business records evidencing the transfers to which Golden testified.

The Houdes objected to Golden's testimony and to the introduction of the Note in evidence, arguing that Golden's testimony was inadmissible hearsay, as he had no personal knowledge of the transactions to which he testified. In addition, they argued that Golden's testimony was not the best evidence of the transactions in question. The district court sustained the Houdes' objection and struck Golden's testimony. The FDIC then requested a short continuance to allow it to obtain documentation of the underlying transactions to which Golden had testified. The court denied a continuance, granting judgment as a matter of law in favor of the Houdes. The court stated that there was "no basis whatsoever on which a jury could conclude that the plaintiff is entitled to enforce this note." ¹ In response to the FDIC counsel's indication that he would file a motion for reconsideration of the directed verdict later that afternoon, the court indicated that it would not reconsider its decision. The court issued a final judgment dismissing the FDIC's action on June 8, 1995.

II.

The FDIC contends that the district court erred in finding that the evidence of the FDIC's ownership of the Note was so inadequate that the FDIC's claim to enforce the Note against its makers, the Houdes, fails as a matter of law. Alternatively, the FDIC argues that the district court abused its discretion in refusing to grant a brief continuance so as to enable the FDIC to procure records that would establish its requisite interest in the Note. The Houdes reply that the FDIC never presented competent proof of the various transactions through which it allegedly acquired lawful ownership and possession of the Note, Golden's testimony having, in their view, been rightly stricken as hearsay. They argue that without such competent evidence, the FDIC's case failed as a matter of law.

The district court dismissed the case because it concluded that the FDIC had failed to meet its burden of presenting sufficient evidence to establish, prima facie, that it was a party entitled to enforce the Note. Without proper proof of ownership, the Note would not be admissible as a basis for the FDIC's claim. The question, of course, would not be whether the FDIC's right to enforce the Note was conclusively established but whether enough of a case was made out to go to the jury. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a) ("If ... there is no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable jury to find for [a] party on [an] issue, the court may determine the issue against that party and may grant a motion for judgment as a matter of law against that party.").

1. The FDIC's Burden of Proof

The FDIC argues that possession of the Note was a sufficient basis for it to be entitled to a presumption that it could enforce the Note. The FDIC points to federal law, set forth in FIRREA, ² providing expressly that the FDIC succeeds by operation of law to a failed bank's right and title in all its assets, see 12 U.S.C. § 1821(d)(2)(A), infra. FIRREA, however, does not spell out what the FDIC needs to prove in order to show its entitlement to sue on a transferred asset like the Note. The Supreme Court has recently held that matters left unaddressed in FIRREA are controlled by state law. O'Melveny & Myers v. FDIC, 512 U.S. 79, ----, 114 S.Ct. 2048, 2054, 129 L.Ed.2d 67 (1994). We look, therefore, to Maine law to supplement FIRREA in determining what the FDIC, as receiver of NMNB, needed to show for it to be found a party entitled to enforce the Note. See, e.g., RTC v. Maplewood Invs., 31 F.3d 1276, 1293-94 (4th Cir.1994) (holding that question of whether RTC is a holder in due course is governed by state law); see also FDIC v. Grupo Girod Corp., 869 F.2d 15, 17 (1st Cir.1989) (applying Puerto Rico law to determine whether the FDIC was a holder in due course); FDIC...