A significant side-effect from the current bank failure wave has been the FDIC’s assertion of claims against the former directors and officers of many of the failed banks. The FDIC’s claims have in turn raised significant questions of insurance coverage under many of the failed banks’ D&O insurance policies. As discussed in a prior post (here), one of the significant coverage issues that has come up is whether or not the claims of the FDIC, which it is asserting in its capacity as receiver for the failed banks, are precluded under the Insured vs. Insured exclusion found in most D&O insurance policies. (The Insured vs. Insured Exclusion is sometimes referred to as the I v I exclusion.)

 

In what is as far as I know the first decision on this issue as part of the coverage litigation arising out the current bank failure wave, the federal court in Puerto Rico has ruled that the I v I exclusion in the D&O insurance program of the failed Westernbank of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico does not preclude coverage for the FDIC’s claims against the failed bank’s former directors and officers. A copy of the court’s October 23, 2012 decision can be found here.

 

Regulators closed Westernbank on April 30, 2010, which according to the FDIC cost the insurance fund $4.25 billion. In October 2011, certain of the former Westernbank directors and officers had sued the bank’s primary D&O insurer in state court in Puerto Rico (about which refer here). The FDIC as receiver for Westernbank moved to intervene in the state court action, and on December 30, 2011, removed the state court action to the District of Puerto Rico. On January 20, 2012, the FDIC filed its amended complaint in intervention, in which it named as defendants certain additional directors and officers,  and, in reliance on Puerto Rico’s direct action statute, the D&O insurers in the bank’s D&O insurance program. A copy of the FDIC’s amended complaint can be found here.

 

In its complaint, the FDIC, as Westernbank’s receiver, seeks recovery of over $176 million in damages from the former bank’s directors and officers as well as their conjugal partners, based on twenty-one alleged grossly negligent commercial real estate, construction and asset-based loans approved and administered from January 28, 2004 through November 19, 2009. In its complaint in intervention in the directors and officers coverage action against the bank’s D&O insurers, the FDIC seeks a judicial declaration that its claims against the directors and officers are covered under the policies. All of the defendants moved to dismiss the respective claims against them.

 

In his October 23 opinion and order, Judge Gustavo Gelpi denied all of the motions to dismiss. His rulings with respect to the D&O insurers’ motions to dismiss the coverage actions against them appear on pages 16 and following in the October 23 opinion.

 

The D&O insurers had moved to dismiss the coverage actions that had been filed against them in reliance on the I v I exclusion in the primary insurance policy. The exclusion provides that “The Insurer shall not be liable to make any payment for Loss in connection with any Claim made against an Insured …which is brought by, or on behalf of, an Organization or any Insured Person other than an Employee of an Organization, in any respect and whether or not collusive.” The insurers argued that as receiver for the failed Westernbank, the FDIC stood in the shoes of Westernbank, which is an insured under the policy, and therefore the FDIC’s claims against the failed bank’s directors and officers were precluded from coverage under the D&O insurance policies by operation of the I v I exclusion.

 

As Judge Gelpi noted in his opinion these same issues were raised and litigated in a number of cases during the S&L crisis two decades ago. And as Judge Gelpi also notes in his opinion, these prior courts had split on the question of whether or not a D&O insurance policy’s Insured vs. Insured Exclusion precludes coverage for claims brought by the FDIC in its capacity as receiver against a failed bank’s former directors and officers. In summarizing these cases, Judge Gelpi noted that the question of the applicability of the exclusion in this context “is ambiguous.”

 

Judge Gelpi then, “with these differences in mind,” turned to the “purposes of the exclusion, the complaint and the specific terms of the policy for guidance.” He noted that the “obvious purpose” of the exclusion is to protect against collusive law suits; however, he also noted that the exclusion itself on which the insurers sought to rely made the exclusion applicable to Insured vs. Insured claims “whether or not collusive.”

 

The question to which Judge Gelpi then turned is whether or not the FDIC’s claims against the former directors and officers of Westernbank were “brought by, on behalf of or in the right of, and Organization or any Insured Person.” Judge Gelpi noted that the policy defines the term “Organization” as the named entity, each subsidiary and debtors in bankruptcy proceedings. After citing these provisions, Judge Gelpi summarily concluded that “Accordingly, the court finds that the FDIC’s course of conduct does not run afoul of this provision.” In reliance on prior cases that had concluded that the I v I Exclusion “does not prelude the FDIC from seeking redress from the Insurers.” 

 

By way of further elaboration, Judge Gelpi noted that the FDIC is suing “on behalf of depositors, account holders, and a depleted insurance fund,” and therefore that “the FDIC’s role as a regulator sufficiently distinguishes it from those whom the parties intended to prevent from bringing claims under the Exclusion.”

 

Discussion

Judge Gelpi’s ruling in this case is a significant victory for the individual directors and officers who hoped to be able to rely on the D&O insurance policies in order to be able to defend themselves against the FDIC’s claims against them, as well as for the FDIC, which hopes to be able to recover the losses it claims from the D&O insurance policies.

 

As the first decision on this insurance coverage issue in connection with the current bank failure wave, Judge Gelpi’s ruling will also obviously be of great interest to other failed bank directors and officers who face FDIC claims and whose D&O insurance carriers have tried to deny coverage in reliance on their respective policies’ Insured vs. Insured Exclusions. But while Judge Gelpi’s decision unquestionably will be helpful to the directors and officers in the other cases, it is far from the final word on the subject.

 

For starters, the split of authority in the cases from S&L crisis era remains. As Judge Gelpi noted, the courts have gone both ways on these issues and the carriers undoubtedly will continue to attempt to rely on the cases holding that the Insured vs. Insured exclusion does preclude coverage for claims brought by the FDIC.

 

A further reason that Judge Gelpi’s decision is unlikely to provide the final word on the subject is that other courts may not find the logic on which Judge Gelpi relied as compelling as he did. Judge Gelpi does not, for example, appear to have even considered the question of whether or not an action by the FDIC in its capacity as receiver of a failed bank (and therefore in effect, “standing in the shoes of the failed bank”) is an action “in the right of” the Organization, within the language and meaning of the exclusion. Other courts may consider it important in considering the exclusion’s potential applicability to address this issue expressly, as Judge Gelpi’s opinion does not. These other courts, in more careful consideration of this issue, might also conclude that the FDIC asserting claims as a failed bank’s receiver is asserting claims “in the right of” the failed bank and therefore that the exclusion applies.

 

In support of his conclusion, Judge Gelpi also considered it important that the FDIC was not only suing in its capacity as receiver, but was also suing on behalf of “depositors, account holders, and a depleted insurance fund.” Indeed, many of the courts that had ruled during the S&L crisis era that the Insured vs. Insured exclusion did not preclude coverage for claims by the FDIC had made their decisions in reliance on the same or similar observations about the FDIC’s claims.

 

The insurers, however, will likely contend that even if the FDIC is acting on behalf of these other constituencies in bringing the suit, it is first and foremost bringing the suit in its capacity as receiver for the failed bank, as that is the basis upon which it has any right to bring the claims in the first place. The insurers will further argue that the sole basis on which the FDIC has any right to assert the claims is because, by operation of the receivership, it is acting “in the right of” the failed bank, and therefore the preclusive language of the exclusion applies, notwithstanding the fact that the FDIC may have other purposes and motivations in bringing the action. The policy’s exclusion does not require, in order for the exclusion to apply, that the action be brought “solely” or “only” “in the right of” the Organization. The insurers will argue that because the action was brought “in the right of” the Organization, the exclusion applies notwithstanding the fact that in bringing the claim the FDIC was also action on behalf of other constituencies.

 

All of which is a long way of saying that though the policyholders and the FDIC prevailed in this case, these issues are likely to continue to be litigated, and the split of cases we saw during the S&L crisis is likely to continue.

 

Very special thanks to the several readers who supplied me with copies of Judge Gulpi’s opinion.

 

Another Georgia Failed Bank Lawsuit: On October 23, 2012, the FDIC, as receiver for the failed United Security Bank of Sparta, Georgia filed its latest failed bank lawsuit. The complaint, which the FDIC filed in the Northern District of Georgia, can be found here.

 

United Security bank failed on November 6, 2009. The FDIC’s lawsuit as the bank’s receiver is filed against a single defendant, Pierce Neese, the bank’s former CEO and also a bank director. The FDIC’s complaint asserts claims of Negligence and Gross Negligence against Neese in connection with 16 loans made between November 10, 2005 and March 27, 2008, which the agency alleges caused damages to the bank of over $6.373 million.

 

An unusual feature of the FDIC’s complaint, and perhaps the explanation why there is only a singe defendant is the case, is the agency’s allegation that from 2002 until March 2006, Neese “was effectively the Bank’s senior credit officer and functioned as a ‘One-Man Bank.’” Even after the bank established itself as a three-person LLC at the direction of regulators, Neese “continued to function as the Bank’s ‘one-man’ LLC until the Bank failed. According to the complaint, the bank even had print advertisements stating, “Meet Our Loan Committee, Pierce Neese.” The FDIC alleges that by dominating and usurping the loan approval process, Neese rendered the usual lending controls ineffective.

 

The FDIC’s complaint against Neese is the latest that the FDIC has recently filed as banks that failed in 2009 approach the third year anniversary of their closure (about which refer here). The complaint is also is the 35^th lawsuit that the FDIC has filed as part of the current failed bank wave and the 17^th that the agency has filed so far in 2012. The FDIC’s lawsuit against Neese is also the tenth lawsuit the FDIC has filed in connection with a failed Georgia bank. Although Georgia has had more failed banks than any other state, the percentage of all failed bank lawsuit involving failed Georgia banks is even greater than the percentage of all bank failures involving Georgia banks. For now at least, it seems as if the regulators are focusing on Georgia more than other states.