Opinion ID: 751774
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: FDIC's Duty to Provide Annual Accounting

Text: 108 The district court dismissed appellants' claim for a full and fair accounting from the FDIC-Receiver, to which appellants alleged they were entitled under 12 U.S.C. § 1821(d)(15)(A)-(C). The court found that the FDIC-Receiver had complied with the literal requirements of the provision by providing a copy of the annual accounting report to appellants upon their request, and refused to engraft an enforceable duty to provide a correct accounting to shareholders. 109 We again part with the district court's approach, but not its result. While the district court focused on whether an accuracy requirement is implicit in the statute, we find the more appropriate inquiry to be whether the statute grants shareholders an implied private right of enforcement. We hold that it does not. 110 The relevant portion of 12 U.S.C. § 1821(d)(15) provides: 111 (A) The Corporation as conservator or receiver shall, consistent with the accounting and reporting practices and procedures established by the Corporation, maintain a full accounting of each conservatorship and receivership or other disposition of institutions in default. 112 (B) With respect to each conservatorship or receivership to which the Corporation was appointed, the Corporation shall make an annual accounting or report, as appropriate, available to the Secretary of the Treasury, the Comptroller General of the United States, and the authority which appointed the Corporation as conservator or receiver. 113 (C) Any report prepared pursuant to subparagraph (B) shall be made available by the Corporation upon request to any shareholder of the depository institution for which the Corporation was appointed conservator or receiver or any other member of the public. 114 Although appellants urge us to imply a requirement of accuracy, they cite no authority which directly supports this view. Rather, they cite analogous authority, which we find unpersuasive in this context. See First Nat'l Bank of Gordon v. Department of Treasury, 911 F.2d 57, 62-63 (8th Cir.1990). 20 Despite this lack of authority, we recognize that, in a practical sense, at some point the right to an accounting may be rendered meaningless if the accounting is not accurate. Nevertheless, even if we were to imply an accuracy requirement, we must affirm the district court's dismissal of this claim because our analysis of the Cort factors establishes that the shareholders do not have a private right of action to enforce the FDIC duty. 115 The shareholders are not members of a special class for whose benefit the statute was created. Rather, the plain language of the statute puts shareholders on par with members of the general public. The statute gives shareholders and members of the public identical rights--the FDIC must make the annual report available to either upon request--and the statute establishes these rights in the same subsection. We see no reason, therefore, to distinguish between shareholders and members of the general public for purposes of this statute. 116 Further, the legislative history is silent as to whether Congress intended to create a private remedy. Because the first two Cort factors are not satisfied, our inquiry ends here. See Sierra Club, 451 U.S. at 298, 101 S.Ct. at 1781. 117 Because there is no indication of a congressional intent to grant shareholders a private right to enforce the FDIC's duty to provide an accounting, we will affirm the dismissal of this claim. We emphasize, however, that we render no opinion on whether the FDIC has a duty to provide an accurate accounting to those officials enumerated in subsection (B).