Motorcity of Jacksonville, Ltd. v. Southeast Bank N.A.

• Decision Date: 20 August 1997
• Docket Number: No. 93-4634,93-4634
• Citation: 120 F.3d 1140
• Parties: 11 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 343 MOTORCITY OF JACKSONVILLE, LTD., a limited partnership, by and through its general partner Motorcity of Jacksonville, Inc., a Florida corporation, David S. Hess, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SOUTHEAST BANK N.A., David Feigenbaum, Defendants, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, as receiver for Southeast Bank, N.A., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1140

120 F.3d 1140

11 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 343

MOTORCITY OF JACKSONVILLE, LTD., a limited partnership, by and through its general partner Motorcity of Jacksonville, Inc., a Florida corporation, David S. Hess Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SOUTHEAST BANK N.A., David Feigenbaum, Defendants Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, as receiver for Southeast Bank, N.A., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 93-4634.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Aug. 20, 1997.

Dyanne E. Feinberg, Miami, FL, Kipp A. Coddington, Christopher D. Cerf, Daniel E. Troy, Stephen Goldman, Washington, DC, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Julie Feigeles, Miami, FL, S. Alyssa Roberts, James Scott Watson, Washington, DC, for Defendant-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before HATCHETT, Chief Judge, TJOFLAT, ANDERSON, EDMONDSON, COX, BIRCH, DUBINA, BLACK, CARNES and BARKETT, Circuit Judges, and KRAVITCH ^*, Senior Circuit Judge.

ON REMAND FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.

ANDERSON, Circuit Judge:

I. INTRODUCTION

In this case, appellants Motorcity of Jacksonville, Ltd. and David S. Hess (collectively "Motorcity") contend that the district court erroneously granted a motion to dismiss in favor of appellee Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") based on the D'Oench doctrine. ¹ See D'Oench, Duhme & Co., Inc. v. FDIC, 315 U.S. 447, 62 S.Ct. 676, 86 L.Ed. 956 (1942). A panel of this court vacated the district court's dismissal. See Motorcity of Jacksonville, Ltd. v. Southeast Bank N.A., 39 F.3d 292 (11th Cir.1994). ² On rehearing en banc, this court affirmed the district court's dismissal, holding that neither the Federal Deposit Insurance Act of 1950, Pub.L. No. 797, 64 Stat. 873, nor the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 ("FIRREA"), Pub.L. No. 101-73, 103 Stat. 183, displaced the federal common law D'Oench doctrine. See Motorcity of Jacksonville, Ltd. v. Southeast Bank N.A., 83 F.3d 1317, 1327-34 (11th Cir.1996) (en banc). ³ At the time of our en banc decision, the D.C. Circuit and the Eighth Circuit had held that FIRREA displaced the D'Oench doctrine. See Murphy v. FDIC, 61 F.3d 34, 40 (D.C.Cir.1995) (holding that FIRREA supplanted the D'Oench doctrine); DiVall Insured Income Fund Ltd. Partnership v. Boatmen's First Nat'l Bank, 69 F.3d 1398 1402 (8th Cir.1995) (following the D.C. Circuit's holding in Murphy that FIRREA supplanted the D'Oench doctrine). Since the time of our decision, the Fourth Circuit has held that FIRREA does not displace the D'Oench doctrine. See Young v. FDIC, 103 F.3d 1180, 1187 (4th Cir.1997) (following the holding in our en banc Motorcity decision that FIRREA does not abrogate the D'Oench doctrine). There is thus a split in the circuits on this issue. See FDIC v. Houde, 90 F.3d 600, 605 n. 5 (1st Cir.1996) (noting the split in the circuits).

The Supreme Court granted certiorari in this case, vacated our judgment, and remanded this case for further consideration in light of Atherton v. FDIC, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 666, 136 L.Ed.2d 656 (1997). Hess v. FDIC, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 760, 136 L.Ed.2d 708 (1997).

II. DISCUSSION

In Atherton, the Resolution Trust Corporation ("RTC") sued officers and directors of a federal savings association ("bank"), which had gone into receivership with the RTC as receiver. Atherton, --- U.S. at ----, 117 S.Ct. at 669. The RTC claimed that the bank's officers and directors had violated the legal standard of care which they owed to the bank. Id. The issue in Atherton was whether courts should look to state law, to federal common law, or to 12 U.S.C. § 1821(k), a provision of FIRREA, to determine what the standard of care is for federal bank officers and directors. Id. The Court held that state law determines the standard of care so long as the state standard is stricter than the gross negligence standard set forth in § 1821(k). Id. at ----, 117 S.Ct. at 674. The Court explained that § 1821(k) sets a gross negligence floor which applies if the state standard of care is less strict. Id.

In reaching this conclusion, the Court first set § 1821(k) "to the side" and asked "whether, were there no such statute, federal common law would provide the applicable legal standard." Id. at ---- - ----, 117 S.Ct. at 669-70. The Court recognized that it had articulated in Briggs v. Spaulding, 141 U.S. 132, 11 S.Ct. 924, 35 L.Ed. 662 (1891), a federal common law corporate governance standard. Atherton, --- U.S. at ----, 117 S.Ct. at 670. However, the Court noted that Briggs was decided long before Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938), held that there is no federal general common law. Atherton, --- U.S. at ----, 117 S.Ct. at 670. The Court then addressed the issue of whether Briggs survived Erie, and held that it did not. Id. After so holding, the Court examined whether the matter of corporate governance standards for federally chartered banks was one of the few and restricted areas in which judicial creation of federal common law was justified. Id. Applying post-Erie jurisprudence, the Court characterized the issue as being whether the use of state law would constitute a significant conflict with some federal policy or interest such that the creation of a federal common law rule would be appropriate. Id. The Court examined several asserted federal interests and concluded that the use of state law would not significantly conflict with or pose a threat to any of these interests. Id. at ----, 117 S.Ct. at 673. The Court explained that "[t]he federal need [in this case] is far weaker than was present in what the Court has called the 'few and restricted instances' ... in which this Court has created a federal common law." Id. (quoting Milwaukee v. Illinois, 451 U.S. 304, 313, 101 S.Ct. 1784, 1790, 68 L.Ed.2d 114 (1981)).

The Court thus overruled Briggs, declined to create a new federal common law rule, and concluded that "[t]here is no federal common law that would create a general standard of care applicable to this case." Id. at ----, 117 S.Ct. at 674. Having concluded that there was no applicable federal common law, the Court then embarked on its only preemption analysis. The Court analyzed whether § 1821(k) set the sole standard of care for federal bank officers and directors, thus preempting state law, or whether it merely set a floor guaranteeing at least a gross negligence standard. Relying on the statute's purpose and legislative history and on the savings clause of § 1821(k), which states that "[n]othing in this paragraph shall impair or affect any right of the Corporation under other applicable law," the Court held that the statute merely sets a gross negligence floor and that stricter state standards are not preempted. Id. at ---- - ----, 117 S.Ct. at 674-76.

As the above discussion indicates, Atherton does not address the question of whether a federal statute abrogates a previously established and long-standing federal common law doctrine. It is true that the Atherton facts implicated the preexisting federal common law rule announced in Briggs. However, rather than addressing whether § 1821(k) displaced the Briggs rule, the Court explicitly set § 1821(k) to the side and addressed the different issue of whether Briggs survived Erie. After concluding that Briggs did not survive, thus leaving no federal common law regarding the standard of care, the Court obviously never reached or addressed any issue of statutory abrogation of federal common law. ⁴ Thus, in Atherton, as in O'Melveny & Myers v. FDIC, 512 U.S. 79, 114 S.Ct. 2048, 129 L.Ed.2d 67 (1994), the Court's analysis focused on determining whether to create federal common law.

By contrast, the federal common law rule at issue in this case, the D'Oench doctrine, was first articulated by the Supreme Court in 1942, after Erie. The issue in this case therefore is not whether the D'Oench doctrine survived Erie, but rather whether Congress intended FIRREA to supplant the previously established and long-standing federal common law D'Oench doctrine. As explained in our previous en banc opinion, United States v. Texas, 507 U.S. 529, 113 S.Ct. 1631, 123 L.Ed.2d 245 (1993), applies in this context and provides a presumption in favor of retaining existing federal common law unless a statutory purpose to the contrary is evident. See id. at 534, 113 S.Ct. at 1634; Motorcity, 83 F.3d at 1330-34.

In order to transform this case into one for which the analysis of Atherton and O'Melveny is appropriate, this court would be required to overrule the Supreme Court's decision in D'Oench, which we cannot do. "Federal district courts and circuit courts are bound to adhere to the controlling decisions of the Supreme Court." Jaffree v. Wallace, 705 F.2d 1526, 1532 (11th Cir.1983), aff'd, 472 U.S. 38, 105 S.Ct. 2479, 86 L.Ed.2d 29 (1985). The courts of appeals must follow Supreme Court precedent that has "direct application" in a case, even if it appears that the reasoning of the Supreme Court precedent has been rejected in other cases. Rodriguez De Quijas v. Shearson/American Express, Inc., 490 U.S. 477, 484, 109 S.Ct. 1917, 1921, 104 L.Ed.2d 526 (1989). See also Florida League of Prof'l Lobbyists, Inc. v. Meggs, 87 F.3d 457, 462 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 516, 136 L.Ed.2d 405 (1996). Only the Supreme Court has "the prerogative of overruling its own decisions." Rodriguez De Quijas, 490 U.S. at 484, 109 S.Ct. at 1922.

Moreover, we detect no indications that D'Oench is ripe for overruling. It is true that in its post-Erie jurisprudence, the Supreme Court has explained that the creation of federal common law is appropriate only in the " 'few and restricted' " instances where the use of state law would pose a significant threat to or conflict with a federal policy or interest. O'Melveny, 512 U.S. at 87, 114 S.Ct. at 2055 (quoting Wheeldin v. Wheeler, 373 U.S. 647, 651, 83 S.Ct. 1441, 1445, ...