UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
Filed 1/2/97
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
SHAFFER CLARK LEASING
COMPANY, an Oklahoma general
partnership,
Plaintiff-Appellant, No. 96-6105
(D.C. No. CIV-95-754-A)
v. (W.D. Okla.)
FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE
CORPORATION, as receiver for
Heartland Federal Savings & Loan
Association,
Defendant-Appellee.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before PORFILIO, ALARCON, ** and LUCERO, Circuit Judges.
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. The court
generally disfavors the citation of orders and judgments; nevertheless, an order
and judgment may be cited under the terms and conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
**
Honorable Arthur L. Alarcon, Senior Circuit Judge, United States Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting by designation.
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously to grant the parties’ request for a decision on the briefs without oral
argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(f) and 10th Cir. R. 34.1.9. The case is
therefore ordered submitted without oral argument.
Shaffer-Clark Leasing Company (Shaffer-Clark) appeals from the district
court’s order granting summary judgment against it in favor of the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on Shaffer-Clark’s complaint for
declaratory judgment. We affirm.
Shaffer-Clark acquired rights to a property in Ponca City, Oklahoma, which
it intended to use for the construction of a bank building for Frontier Federal
Savings and Loan Association (Frontier Federal). Shaffer-Clark and Frontier
Federal agreed that Frontier Federal would loan Shaffer-Clark the necessary funds
for construction of the bank building and would then lease the building from
Shaffer-Clark. In March 1981, Frontier Federal entered into an agreement to
lease the building from Shaffer-Clark for a twenty-five year period. The lease
payments were set at the amount needed for Shaffer-Clark to retire its costs,
including indebtedness on a prospective construction loan. On June 16, 1981,
Shaffer-Clark executed a promissory note for $400,000 in favor of Frontier
Federal, representing the amount due on the construction loan. It also executed a
mortgage and assignment of lease in favor of Frontier Federal.
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In August 1988, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation
(FSLIC) determined that Frontier Federal was insolvent. FSLIC was appointed
receiver for Frontier Federal. It transferred the promissory note to Heartland
Federal Savings and Loan Association (Heartland). FSLIC also notified
Shaffer-Clark that it was repudiating the lease agreement. Heartland subsequently
went into receivership. Its receiver, the FDIC, sold substantially all of
Heartland’s assets to Commercial Federal Bank (Commercial). FDIC retained the
promissory note, however, and notified Shaffer-Clark to make all future payments
to FDIC.
Commercial now occupied the bank building. Since FSLIC had repudiated
the lease, Shaffer-Clark was obligated to renegotiate lease payments with
Commercial. The lease payments Commercial made under the new agreement
were insufficient to cover the payments due on the promissory note.
Shaffer-Clark defaulted on the promissory note. It then filed this declaratory
judgment action against FDIC, contending that the lease agreement and the note
were all part of the same transaction, that when FSLIC opted to discontinue the
lease agreement, it also repudiated the promissory note, and that Shaffer-Clark
was thereby released from its obligations under the note. FDIC counterclaimed to
enforce the note.
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The district court granted summary judgment for FDIC, and entered
judgment against Shaffer-Clark on the note. It found that in order to prove that
the lease was linked to the note, and to thereby diminish the FDIC’s interest in the
note, Shaffer-Clark had to prove that the lease satisfied the requirements of 12
U.S.C. § 1823(e), or some exception thereto. It found that the lease agreement
had not been executed contemporaneously with the note, and could therefore not
satisfy these requirements. The district court also rejected Shaffer-Clark’s
argument, based on Howell v. Continental Credit Corp., 655 F.2d 743 (7th Cir.
1981), that since the FDIC was seeking to recover on the very obligation which
Frontier Federal had breached, § 1823(e) did not apply. It reasoned that there was
no recitation in the lease, note or accompanying documents of a linked, bilateral
obligation between payments on the note and payments on the lease.
“We review the grant or denial of summary judgment de novo, applying the
same legal standard used by the district court under Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c).” Ingels
v. Thiokol Corp., 42 F.3d 616, 620 (10th Cir. 1994). Summary judgment is
appropriate if “there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and . . . the
moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c).
We have carefully reviewed the district court’s order, the record and the
applicable law. We conclude that summary judgment should be affirmed, for
substantially the same reasons stated in the district court’s order of March 1,
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1996. The judgment of the United States District Court for the Western District
of Oklahoma is therefore AFFIRMED.
Entered for the Court
John C. Porfilio
Circuit Judge
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