Opinion ID: 794241
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Application of Case-or-Controversy Principles to This Appeal

Text: 31 Application of these well-established case-or-controversy principles to this appeal is not difficult. The payday loan programs that formed the heart of, and gave rise to, the preliminary injunction ruling are no longer being used by any of the Appellants. More importantly, the FDIC has taken certain regulatory action and Appellants have now abandoned their servicing agreements and are no longer in a position to offer, or resume offering, the payday loans that were the subject of the preliminary injunction ruling. As a result, Appellants no longer have a legally cognizable interest in obtaining an injunction against enforcement of the Act as it might have applied to their making and administering these particular types of payday loans and servicing agreements. See De La Teja, 321 F.3d at 1362 (stating that a case is moot when the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome). 32 Indeed, the motions for a preliminary injunction and the district court's ruling on them were specific as to the particular loan program reflected in the loan and servicing agreements in the record. Stated another way, the appeal before us is about the validity of the Act as applied to a specific type of payday loan said to be between the Appellant banks and Georgia borrowers, and serviced and marketed through a specific type of servicing agreement between the banks and a specific type of non-bank agent in Georgia. We recognize that the parties still dispute whether the Act is legally valid. However, Appellants have not just ceased but have exited the payday loan business reflected in the loan and servicing agreements in the record. For that reason, they no longer have a legally cognizable interest in the issue of whether the Act can be validly applied to those loans and servicing agreements. In short, there is no actual adversarial context for our ruling in this appeal. See id. at 1361 (noting that `courts consider only matters presented in an actual adversarial context') (citation omitted). Thus, this appeal of the district court's denial of Appellants' motions for a preliminary injunction no longer presents a live controversy. 1 33 Appellants, or at least some of them, raise two primary arguments as to why their appeal of the preliminary injunction ruling is not moot. We address each argument in turn.