Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/508/286/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 04:50:45+00:00

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MUSICK, PEELER & GARRETT ET AL. v. EMPLOYERS INSURANCE OF WAUSAU ET AL.
Respondents insured most of the named defendants in a suit that, inter alia, was based on an implied private right of action under § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule lOb-5 of the Securities and Exchange Commission (a 10b-5 action), and that eventually was settled by the parties. Mter funding $13 million of the settlement, respondents brought this lawsuit seeking contribution from petitioners, who were the attorneys and accountants involved in the stock offering that prompted the lOb-5 action. Both the District Court and the Court of Appeals, consistent with binding Circuit precedent, recognized that respondents had a right to seek contribution for the lOb-5 liability. Shortly after the latter court ruled in respondents' favor, however, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that there can be no implied cause of action for contribution in a lOb-5 action.
Held: Defendants in a 10b-5 action have a right to seek contribution as a matter of federal law. Pp. 290-298.
(a) Federal courts have authority to imply a right to contribution in a 10b-5 action. Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. Transport Workers, 451 U. S. 77, Texas Industries, Inc. v. Radcliff Materials, Inc., 451 U. S. 630, and the precedents on which they are based, distinguished. The 10b-5 action was not created by Congress, but was implied by the judiciary. The courts having implied the underlying liability in the first place, it would be most unfair to those against whom damages have been assessed for the courts to now disavow authority to allocate that liability on the theory that Congress has not addressed the issue directly. Congress has recognized a judicial authority to shape, within limits, the lOb-5 cause of action when, in enacting the Insider Trading and Securities Fraud Enforcement Act of 1988 and a statute respecting lOb-5 limitations periods, it included provisions acknowledging the 10b-5 action without expressing any intent to define it. Congress has left that task to the courts. pp. 290-294.
(b) A right to contribution is within the contours of the 10b-5 action.
private right of action as an express provision in the Act. See, e. g., Lamp!, Pleva, Lipkind, Prupis & Petigrow v. Gilbertson, 501 U. S. 350, 359. Two sections of the 1934 Act containing express private rights of action, §§ 9 and 18, are close in structure, purpose, and intent to the lOb-5 action, and each explicitly provides for a right of contribution. See 15 U. S. C. §§ 78i(e) and 78r(b). Consistency and coherence therefore require that a like contribution rule be adopted for lOb-5 actions. Moreover, there is no evidence this rule will impede the purposes of the lOb-5 action; in the more than 20 years since the federal courts first recognized a right to contribution for 10b-5 defendants, there has been no showing that the right detracts from the effectiveness of the lOb-5 implied action or interferes with the effective operation of the securities laws. Pp. 294-298.
KENNEDY, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C. J., and WHITE, STEVENS, SCALIA, and SOUTER, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BLACKMUN and O'CONNOR, JJ., joined, post, p. 298.
Charles A. Bird argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the brief were Robert G. Steiner, Alvin M. Stein, and Mark 1. Schlesinger.
Theodore B. Olson argued the cause for respondents. Lawrence H. Nagler, Nanci E. Murdock, Robert M. Zabb, and Darrin F. Meyer filed a brief for respondents Employers Insurance of Wausau et al. Andrew J. Pincus, Kenneth S. Geller, William J. Reifman, Michael A. Vatis, Leonard P. Novello, Richard 1. Miller, and Dean 1. Ringel filed a brief for respondents Peat Marwick Main & Co. et al.
* Paul F. Bennett, David B. Gold, William S. Lerach, and Kevin P.
Roddy filed a brief for the National Association of Securities and Commercial Law Attorneys as amicus curiae urging reversal.
JUSTICE KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court. Where there is joint responsibility for tortious conduct, the question often arises whether those who compensate the injured party may seek contribution from other joint tortfeasors who have paid no damages or paid less than their fair share. In this case we must determine whether defendants in a suit based on an implied private right of action under § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 of the Securities and Exchange Commission (a 10b-5 action) may seek contribution from joint tortfeasors. Without addressing the merits of the claim for contribution in this case, we hold that defendants in a 10b-5 action have a right to seek contribution as a matter of federal law.
G. Ryan; for the First Boston Corporation et al. by Stuart J. Baskin and Thomas S. Martin; and for the Securities Industry Association by Barbara Moses, Sam Scott Miller, Barry S. Augenbraun, and William A. Fitzpatrick.
fessionals had joint responsibility for the securities violations and were liable for contribution under various theories, including a right to contribution based on the 10b-5 action central to the complaint in the original class suit.
In proceedings before the United States District Court for the Southern District of California and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the parties disputed the principles for determining whether the insureds had paid more than their fair share of liability in the class settlement, with scant attention being paid to the underlying issue whether liability in a 10b-5 action is accompanied by any right to contribution at all. This lack of attention is understandable, for the existence of the 10b-5 right to contribution is well established in the Ninth Circuit, Smith v. Mulvaney, 827 F.2d 558, 560 (1987), as well as in a number of other Circuits, In re Jiffy Lube Securities Litigation, 927 F.2d 155, 160 (CA4 1991); Sirota v. Solitron Devices, Inc., 673 F. 2d 566, 578 (CA2), cert. denied, 459 U. S. 838 (1982); Huddleston v. Herman & MacLean, 640 F.2d 534, 557-559 (CA5 1981), aff'd in part, rev'd in part on other grounds, 459 U. S. 375 (1983); Heizer Corp. v. Ross, 601 F.2d 330, 331-334 (CA71979).
1934 and Rule 10b-5 of the Securities [and] Exchange Commission," Pet. for Cert. i. 506 U. S. 814 (1992).
Requests to recognize a right to contribution for defendants liable under federal law are not unfamiliar to this Court. Twice we have declined to recognize an action for contribution under federal laws outside the arena of securities regulation. In Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. Transport Workers, 451 U. S. 77 (1981), we held that an employer had no right to contribution against unions alleged to be joint participants with the employer in violations of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Later that same Term, in Texas Industries, Inc. v. Radcliff Materials, Inc., 451 U. S. 630 (1981), we determined that there is no right to contribution for recovery based on violation of § 1 of the Sherman Act.
On the other hand, we endorsed a nonstatutory right to contribution among joint tortfeasors responsible for injuring a longshoreman in Cooper Stevedoring Co. v. Fritz Kopke, Inc., 417 U. S. 106 (1974). We have been careful to note that Cooper does not stand for the proposition that there is a general right to contribution under federal law. Northwest Airlines, supra, at 96-97. Indeed, the rule announced in Cooper represented an exercise of our authority to provide just and equitable remedies for cases within our admiralty jurisdiction, a jurisdiction in which the federal courts have had historic, well-recognized responsibility for the elaboration of legal doctrine. See United States v. Reliable Transfer Co., 421 U. S. 397, 409 (1975). For our purposes, therefore, Cooper is less instructive than our decisions in Texas Industries and Northwest Airlines. But the instruction we receive from the latter two cases is that they are distinguishable from, rather than parallel to, the matter now before us.
express in creating the substantive damages liability for which contribution was sought. Recognizing that the applicable statutes did not "implicate 'uniquely federal interests' of the kind that oblige courts to formulate federal common law," Texas Industries, 451 U. S., at 642, we asked whether Congress "expressly or by clear implication" envisioned a contribution right to accompany the substantive damages right created, id., at 638, or, failing that, whether Congress "intended courts to have the power to alter or supplement the remedies enacted," id., at 645. See also Northwest Airlines, supra, at 91 and 97. But these inquiries are not helpful in the present context. The private right of action under Rule 10b-5 was implied by the Judiciary on the theory courts should recognize private remedies to supplement federal statutory duties, not on the theory Congress had given an unequivocal direction to the courts to do so. Blue Chip Stamps v. Manor Drug Stores, 421 U. S. 723, 730, 737 (1975). Thus, it would be futile to ask whether the 1934 Congress also displayed a clear intent to create a contribution right collateral to the remedy. See Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools, 503 U. S. 60, 76 (1992); id., at 71 (SCALIA, J., concurring).
as a matter of common law, see, e. g., Goldman v. MitchellFletcher Co., 292 Pa. 354, 364-365, 141 A. 231, 234-235 (1928); Davis v. Broad Street Garage, 191 Tenn. 320, 325, 232 S. W. 2d 355, 357 (1950), in both instances the right is thought to be a separate or independent cause of action. Cf. Northwest Airlines, supra, at 87, n. 17; Restatement (Second) of Torts § 886A (1979).
This argument, like the argument based on Texas Industries and Northwest Airlines, would have much force were the duty to be created one governing conduct subject to liability under an express remedial provision fashioned by Congress, or one governing conduct not already subject to liability through private suit. That, however, is not the present state of the jurisprudence we consider here. The parties against whom contribution is sought are, by definition, persons or entities alleged to have violated existing securities laws and who share joint liability for that wrong under a remedial scheme established by the federal courts. Even though we are being asked to recognize a cause of action that supports a suit against these parties, the duty is but the duty to contribute for having committed a wrong that courts have already deemed actionable under federal law. The violation of the securities laws gives rise to the 10b-5 private cause of action, and the question before us is the ancillary one of how damages are to be shared among persons or entities already subject to that liability. Having implied the underlying liability in the first place, to now disavow any authority to allocate it on the theory that Congress has not addressed the issue would be most unfair to those against whom damages are assessed.
rights has developed without clear indications of congressional intent," a federal court has the limited power to define "the contours of that structure." Virginia Bankshares, Inc. v. Sandberg, 501 U. S. 1083, 1104 (1991). As to this proposition we were unanimous. See ibid. (SOUTER, J., joined by REHNQUIST, C. J., and WHITE, O'CONNOR, and SCALIA, JJ.); id., at 1114 (KENNEDY, J., joined by Marshall, BLACKMUN, and STEVENS, JJ., concurring in part and dissenting in part) ("Where an implied cause of action is well accepted by our own cases and has become an established part of the securities laws ... we should enforce it as a meaningful remedy unless we are to eliminate it altogether"). See also Blue Chip Stamps, supra, at 737 (recognizing the authority of federal courts to define "the contours of a private cause of action under Rule 10b-5" and "to flesh out the portions of the law with respect to which neither the congressional enactment nor the administrative regulations offer conclusive guidance").
an approach parallel to the one it adopted for the insider trading statute, Congress did no more than direct the applicable "limitation period for any private civil action implied under section 78j(b) of this title [§ 10(b) of the 1934 Act] that was commenced on or before June 19, 1991 [the day prior to issuance of Lampf, Pleva]." 15 U. S. C. § 78aa-1 (1988 ed., Supp. III).
We infer from these references an acknowledgment of the 10b-5 action without any further expression of legislative intent to define it. See Herman & MacLean v. Huddleston, 459 U. S. 375, 384-386 (1983); Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Curran, 456 U. S. 353, 378-382 (1982). Indeed, the latter statute, § 78aa-1, not only treats the 10b-5 action as an accepted feature of our securities laws, but avoids entangling Congress in its formulation. That task, it would appear, Congress has left to us.
we have narrowed our discretion in this regard over the years, our goals in establishing limits for the 10b-5 action have remained the same: to ensure the action does not conflict with Congress' own express rights of action, id., at 210, to promote clarity, consistency, and coherence for those who rely upon, or are subject to, 10b-5 liability, cf. Blue Chip Stamps, 421 U. S., at 737-744, and to effect Congress' objectives in enacting the securities laws, Santa Fe Industries, Inc. v. Green, 430 U. S. 462, 477-478 (1977).
Inquiring about what a given Congress might have done, though not a promising venture as a general proposition, does in this case yield an answer we find convincing. It is true that the initial step, drawing some inference of congressional intent from the language of § 10(b) itself, id., at 472; Ernst & Ernst, supra, at 197, yields no answer. The text of § 10(b) provides little guidance where we are asked to specify elements or aspects of the 10b-5 apparatus unique to a private liability arrangement, including a statute of limitations, Lampf, Pleva, supra, at 359, a reliance requirement, Basic Inc. v. Levinson, 485 U. S. 224, 243 (1988), a defense to liability, Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards, Inc. v. Berner, 472 U. S. 299 (1985), or a right to contribution. Having made no attempt to define the precise contours of the private cause of action under § 10(b), Congress had no occasion to address how to limit, compute, or allocate liability arising from it.
solved the question of contribution had it provided for a private cause of action under § 10(b). First, §§ 9 and 18 are instructive because both "target the precise dangers that are the focus of § 10(b)," Lampf, Pleva, supra, at 360, and the intent motivating all three sections is the same-"to deter fraud and manipulative practices in the securities markets, and to ensure full disclosure of information material to investment decisions," Randall v. Loftsgaarden, 478 U. S. 647, 664 (1986).
Second, of the eight express liability provisions contained in the 1933 and 1934 Acts, §§ 9 and 18 impose liability upon defendants who stand in a position most similar to 10b-5 defendants for the sake of assessing whether they should be entitled to contribution. All three causes of action impose direct liability on defendants for their own acts as opposed to derivative liability for the acts of others; all three involve defendants who have violated the securities law with scienter, Ernst & Ernst, supra, at 209, n. 28; all three operate in many instances to impose liability on multiple defendants acting in concert, 3 L. Loss, Securities Regulation 1739-1740, n. 178 (2d ed. 1961); and all three are based on securities provisions enacted into law by the 73d Congress. The Acts' six other express liability provisions, on the other hand, stand in marked contrast to the implied § 10 remedy: § 15 of the 1933 Act (15 U. S. C. § 770) and § 20 of the 1934 Act (15 U. S. C. § 78t) impose derivative liability only; §§ 11 and 12 of the 1933 Act (15 U. S. C. §§ 77k and 77l) and § 16 of the 1934 Act (15 U. S. C. § 78p) do not require scienter in all instances, see Ernst & Ernst, supra, at 208; Kern County Land Co. v. Occidental Petroleum Corp., 411 U. S. 582, 595 (1973); § 12 of the 1933 Act and § 16 of the 1934 Act do not often create joint defendant liability, see Pinter v. Dahl, 486 U. S. 622, 650 (1988); Kern County, supra, at 591; and § 20A of the 1934 Act (15 U. S. C. § 78t-1) was not an original liability provision in that Act, having been added to the securities laws in 1988, see Lampf, Pleva, 501 U. S., at 361.
Sections 9 and 18 contain nearly identical express provisions for a right to contribution, each permitting a defendant to "recover contribution as in cases of contract from any person who, if joined in the original suit, would have been liable to make the same payment." 15 U. S. C. §§ 78i(e) and 78r(b). These were forward-looking provisions at the time. The course of tort law in this century has been to reverse the old rule against contribution, but this movement has been confined in large part to actions in negligence. 3 F. Harper, F. James, & O. Gray, Law of Torts § 10.2, p. 42, and n. 10 (2d ed. 1986). The express contribution provisions in §§ 9 and 18 were, and still are, cited as important precedents because they permit contribution for intentional torts. See id., § 10.2, p. 43, and n. 11; Ruder, Multiple Defendants in Securities Law Fraud Cases, 120 U. Pa. L. Rev. 597, 650-651 (1972). We think that these explicit provisions for contribution are an important, not an inconsequential, feature of the federal securities laws and that consistency requires us to adopt a like contribution rule for the right of action existing under Rule 10b-5. Given the identity of purpose behind §§ 9, 10(b), and 18, and similarity in their operation, we find no ground for ruling that allowing contribution in 10b-5 actions will frustrate the purposes of the statutory section from which it is derived.
404 U. S. 941 (1971). We consider this to be of particular importance because in the more than 20 years since a right to contribution was first recognized for 10b-5 defendants, DeHass v. Empire Petroleum Co., 286 F. Supp. 809, 815-816 (Colo. 1968), aff'd in part, vacated in part on other grounds, 435 F.2d 1223 (CAlO 1970), neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor the federal courts have suggested that the contribution right detracts from the effectiveness of the 10b-5 implied action or interferes with the effective operation of the securities laws. See Brief for the Securities and Exchange Commission as Amicus Curiae 25-26. Absent any showing that the implied § 10(b) liability structure or the 1934 Act as a whole will be frustrated by finding a right to contribution paralleling the right to contribution in analogous express liability provisions, our task is complete and our resolution clear: Those charged with liability in a 10b-5 action have a right to contribution against other parties who have joint responsibility for the violation.
JUSTICE THOMAS, with whom JUSTICE BLACKMUN and JUSTICE O'CONNOR join, dissenting.
In recognizing a private right to contribution under § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 19341 and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 10b-5,2 the Court unfortunately nourishes "a judicial oak which has grown from little more than a legislative acorn." Blue Chip Stamps v. Manor Drug Stores, 421 U. S. 723, 737 (1975). I respectfully dissent from the Court's decision to cultivate this new branch of Rule 10b-5 law.
115 U. S. C. § 78j(b).
217 CFR § 240.lOb-5 (1992).
I agree with the Court's description of its mission as an "attempt to infer how the 1934 Congress would have addressed the issue had the 10b-5 action been included as an express provision in the 1934 Act." Ante, at 294. However, I do disagree with the Court's chosen method for pursuing this difficult quest. The words of § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 scarcely "suggest that either Congress in 1934 or the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1942 foreordained" the existence of a private 10b-5 action. Blue Chip Stamps, 421 U. S., at 737. Despite our conceded inability "to divine from the language of § 10(b) the express 'intent of Congress,'" ibid., we acquiesced in the lower courts' consensus that an implied right of action existed under § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5. Superintendent of Ins. of N. Y. v. Bankers Life & Casualty Co., 404 U. S. 6, 13, n. 9 (1971); Affiliated Ute Citizens of Utah v. United States, 406 U. S. 128, 150-154 (1972). See Kardon v. National Gypsum Co., 69 F. Supp. 512 (ED Pa. 1946). Such acquiescence was "entirely consistent" with J. 1. Case Co. v. Borak, 377 U. S. 426 (1964), which may have suggested a relatively permissive approach to the recognition of implied rights of action.3 Blue Chip Stamps, supra, at 730. Although we later "decline[d] to read [Borak] so broadly that virtually every provision of the securities Acts gives rise to an implied private cause of action," Touche Ross & Co. v. Redington, 442 U. S. 560, 577 (1979), we never repudiated the 10b-5 action.
3 In Borak, we recognized a private party's right "to bring suit for violation of § 14(a) of the  Act" even though "Congress made no specific reference to a private right of action in § 14(a)." 377 U. S., at 430-431.
limit, compute, or allocate liability arising from it." Ante, at 295. Though this statement is an adequate description of how we came to infer the private right of action, it is not an adequate defense of the Court's reasoning. Unlike the majority, I do not assume that courts should accord different treatment to implied rights of action whose recognition may have been influenced by Borak. How a particular private cause of action may have emerged should not weaken our vigilance in the subsequent interpretation and application of that action. Our inquiries into statutory text, congressional intent, and legislative purpose remain intact. We have consistently declined to recognize an implied private cause of action "under the antifraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act ... where it is 'unnecessary to ensure the fulfillment of Congress' purposes' in adopting the Act." Santa Fe Industries, Inc. v. Green, 430 U. S. 462, 477 (1977) (quoting Piper v. Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., 430 U. S. 1, 41 (1977)). Accordingly, the 10b-5 action must be "judicially delimited one way or another unless and until Congress addresses the question." Blue Chip Stamps, supra, at 749. In the absence of any compelling reason to allow contribution in private 10b-5 suits, we should seek to keep "the breadth" of the 10b-5 action from "grow[ing] beyond the scope congressionally intended." Virginia Bankshares, Inc. v. Sandberg, 501 U. S. 1083, 1102 (1991).
The Court's abandonment of this restrained approach to implied remedies stems from its mistaken assumption that a right to contribution is a mere "elemen[t] or aspec[t]" of Rule 10b-5's private liability apparatus. Ante, at 295. Unlike a statute of limitations, a reliance requirement, or a defense to liability, however, contribution requires a wholly separate cause of action. This case does not require us to define the elements of a 10b-5 claim or to clarify some other essential aspect of this liability scheme. Rather, we are asked to determine whether a 10b-5 defendant enjoys a distinct right to recover from a joint tortfeasor.
The recent decision in which we established a limitations period for 10b-5 actions, Lampf, Pleva, Lipkind, Prupis & Petigrow v. Gilbertson, 501 U. S. 350 (1991), illustrates the difference that I find decisive. A limitations period is almost indispensable to a scheme of civil liability; even when federal law prescribes no express statute of limitations, we will not ordinarily assume that Congress intended no time limit. DelCostello v. Teamsters, 462 U. S. 151, 158 (1983). Rather, we " 'borrow' the most suitable statute or other rule of timeliness from some other source." Ibid. Contribution, by contrast, was generally unavailable at common law. See Union Stock Yards Co. of Omaha v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co., 196 U. S. 217, 224 (1905). Those jurisdictions that have seen fit to provide contribution have usually done so by resort to legislation. Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. Transport Workers, 451 U. S. 77, 87-88, and n. 17 (1981); Texas Industries, Inc. v. Radcliff Materials, Inc., 451 U. S. 630, 634 (1981). A court that recognizes an implied right to contribution must endorse a remedy contrary to the common law and perhaps even the legislative policy of the relevant jurisdiction.
tive weight on the existence of contribution rights under §§ 9 and 18 of the Act. See ante, at 296-298.
The proper analysis flows from our well-established approach to implied causes of action in general and to implied rights of contribution in particular. When deciding whether a statute confers a private right of action, we ask whether Congress-either expressly or by implication-intended to create such a remedy. Touche Ross, 442 U. S., at 575; Transamerica Mortgage Advisors, Inc. v. Lewis, 444 U. S. 11, 1516, 24 (1979). Where Congress did not expressly create a contribution remedy, we may infer that Congress nevertheless intended by clear implication to confer a right to contribution. Texas Industries, supra, at 638; Northwest Airlines, supra, at 90. Through the exercise of their power to craft federal common law, federal courts may also fashion a right to contribution. Texas Industries, supra, at 638; Northwest Airlines, supra, at 90.
Application of this familiar analytical framework compels me to conclude that there is no right to contribution under § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5. With respect to fashioning a common-law right to contribution, the Court readily and correctly concludes that the right to contribution recognized in Cooper Stevedoring Co. v. Fritz Kopke, Inc., 417 U. S. 106 (1974), has no bearing on the availability of contribution under the elaborate federal statutory scheme governing purchases and sales of securities. Ante, at 290. See also Texas Industries, supra, at 640-646; Northwest Airlines, supra, at 95-98. This case therefore depends exclusively on the interpretation of § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5.
" ... To use or employ, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security registered on a national securities exchange or any security not so registered, any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance in contravention of such rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe as necessary or appropriate in the public interest for the protection of investors." 15 U. S. C. § 78j(b).
"in connection with the purchase or sale of any security." 17 CFR § 240.10b-5 (1992).
The sweeping words of § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ban manipulation, deception, or fraud in the purchase or sale of securities. "[A]ny person" who engages in such activity merits condemnation under the statute and the rule. Far from being entitled to seek the protection of § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, joint tortfeasors must confess that these provisions were "expressly directed ... to regulate their conduct for the benefit" of others. Northwest Airlines, supra, at 92.
N either enactment suggests that Congress or the SEC intended to "softe[n] the blow on joint wrongdoers" by permitting contribution. Texas Industries, supra, at 639. Quite the contrary: As private actors "whose activities Congress [and the SEC] intended to regulate for the protection and benefit of an entirely distinct class," joint tortfeasors "can scarcely lay claim to the status of 'beneficiary'" under § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5. Piper v. Chris-Craft Industries, 430 U. S., at 37.
The "underlying ... structure of the [1934 Act's] statutory scheme" also negates the existence of a 10b-5 contribution action. Northwest Airlines, 451 U. S., at 91. The Court notes the presence of express contribution rights under §§ 9 and 18 of the Act, but it misconstrues the significance of these provisions. See ante, at 296-298. The ability to legislate express contribution remedies under the 1934 Act applies with no less force to § 10(b) than to §§ 9 and 18. "When Congress wished to provide a [contribution] remedy ... it had little trouble in doing so expressly." Blue Chip Stamps, supra, at 734. Nor has Congress lacked opportunities to modify the 10b-5 action. Within the last five years, Congress has both preserved and altered the 10b-5 action through amendments to the 1934 Act. Compare Insider Trading and Securities Fraud Enforcement Act of 1988, Pub. L. 100-704, § 5, 102 Stat. 4681 (stating that nothing in a new provision prohibiting insider trading "shall be construed to limit or condition ... the availability of any cause of action implied from a provision of this title"), with 15 U. S. C. § 78aa-1 (1988 ed., Supp. III) (altering the retroactive effect of the 10b-5 limitations period that we adopted in Lampf, Pleva, Lipkind, Prupis & Petigrow v. Gilbertson, 501 U. S. 350 (1991)). See generally ante, at 293-294. Had Congress intended 10b-5 defendants to sue joint tortfeasors, a single enactment could have given effect to this policy. Congress' failure to act does not justify further judicial elaboration of the 10b-5 action.
Moreover, contribution is inconsistent with our established views of the 10b-5 action. In Blue Chip Stamps, supra, we held that only actual purchasers and sellers of securities are entitled to press private 10b-5 suits. We based this conclusion largely on the language of § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, which by their terms govern only "the purchase or sale of any security." See 421 U. S., at 731-732; id., at 756-757 (Powell, J., concurring). The merits of a contribution action in this case would turn on whether "the attorneys and accountants involved in [a] public offering" bore "joint responsibility for ... securities violations." Ante, at 288-289. Even if a court were to acknowledge respondents' status as the subrogees of securities sellers, the contribution action would be at least one level removed from the underlying exchange of securities. Blue Chip Stamps' requirement of actual purchase or sale would virtually evaporate in a contribution dispute embroiling only separate groups of professionals who had merely advised or facilitated a tainted securities transaction. The rule adopted today thus undermines not only the discernible intent of Congress and the SEC, but also our own elaboration of this regulatory scheme. Such are the risks that inhere in the "hazardous enterprise" of recognizing a private right of action despite congressional silence. Touche Ross, 442 U. S., at 571.
ing to do. In their current condition, § lO(b) and Rule lOb-5 afford no right to contribution. Congress has been, and remains free to, alter this state of affairs. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.

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