Opinion ID: 23930
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: bettersworth's adverse determination claim

Text: Subsection 552a(g)(1)(C) provides a civil remedy whenever an agency: fails to maintain any record concerning any individual with such accuracy, relevance, timeliness, and completeness as is necessary to assure fairness in any determination relating to the qualifications, character, rights, or opportunities of, or benefits to the individual that may be made on the basis of such record, and consequently a determination is made which is adverse to the individual. 5 U.S.C. § 552a(g)(1)(C). Bettersworth's adverse determination claim is premised almost entirely upon the Reserve Bank’s handling of ComCorp’s BHCA application. Specifically, Bettersworth claims that the following items constitute adverse determinations against him within the meaning of § 552a(g)(1)(C): (1) Reserve Bank vicepresident McBride's November 5, 1993 letter informing ComCorp that the prospects for approval of its BHCA application were extremely dim, and that further applications would be reviewed directly by the Board; (2) oral statements made by McBride during a telephone conversation with Bettersworth's lawyers about the viability of ComCorp's BHCA application; (3) Reserve Bank examiner Johnson's 13 working papers and notes prepared in the course of her review of ComCorp's BHCA application; and (4) the entry in the OCC's SMS database flagging Bettersworth's role in the financial decline of FCB. The district court held that Bettersworth’s adverse determination claim failed as a matter of law because none of the various statements and writings identified by Bettersworth constituted an adverse determination within the meaning of the statute. The district court held that McBride's November 5, 1993 letter was the only item relied upon by Bettersworth which even potentially constituted an adverse determination. The remaining items concern information allegedly relied upon to draft that letter.4 The district court held that McBride's November 5, 1993 letter did not constitute a determination because the letter identified other reasons for the Reserve Bank’s disinclination to approve the application. The district court also suggested that ComCorp (or Bettersworth) decided not to pursue an application with 4 On this point, we note that Bettersworth's allegations do not directly identify adverse determinations made by each and every defendant agency. To the contrary, Bettersworth premises his claim against the other defendants primarily upon the fact that the Reserve Bank accessed and relied upon records from the other agencies when making its determination. At least one court has recognized that such a connection may be sufficient to support liability. See Dickson, 828 F.2d at 36. Because we affirm the district court's decision that the items identified by Bettersworth do not constitute an adverse determination under the statute in any event, we need not and do not decide whether such a showing is sufficient in this Circuit. 14 the Board because there were no satisfactory answers to the legitimate questions asked in McBride’s letter. The agencies argue that the November 5, 1993 letter cannot be considered an adverse determination because the Reserve Bank had no authority to deny ComCorp’s application. The controlling regulations permit only two courses of action; the Reserve Bank can either approve an application for BHC status or refer it to the Board for further consideration. See 12 C.F.R. § 225.15. Thus, the agencies maintain that there could be no determination unless and until ComCorp forwarded an application to the Board and it was finally denied. See Deters v. United States Parole Comm’n, 85 F.3d 655 (D.C. 1996). Given that ComCorp abandoned that effort, the matter was terminated before an administrative determination could be made. In this same vein, the defendant agencies maintain that, even if the November 5, 1993 letter constituted a determination of any sort, it would be a determination against ComCorp, the company making the application, rather than against Bettersworth personally. Having reviewed the record, we are persuaded that the diverse grounds relied upon in the Reserve Bank's letter, coupled with the fact that ComCorp was the entity applying for BHCA status, provide adequate support for the district court's conclusion that the November 5, 1993 letter did not constitute an adverse determination against Bettersworth within the meaning of § 552a(g)(1)(C). 15 With regard to the remaining items identified by Bettersworth as adverse determinations, the agencies ask the Court to hold that the word determination as used in the statute must mean something akin to a formal or final administrative decision. We need not go that far in order to say that no determination was made in this case. At the very least, informal oral or written statements made in the deliberative process about a particular administrative determination do not constitute the determination itself. We therefore affirm the district court's conclusion that Bettersworth's adverse determination claim fails because there was no evidence of an adverse administrative determination against him. See 5 U.S.C. § 552a(g)(1)(C) (providing that the determination must be adverse “to the individual”).