Opinion ID: 1389726
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Kipperman v. Academy Life Insurance Co.

Text: In their briefs, the parties debate the meaning and relevance of Kipperman v. Academy Life Ins. Co., 554 F.2d 377 (9th Cir.1977), the only federal appellate opinion that has addressed whether an implied private right of action exists under § 3009. In Kipperman, the Ninth Circuit applied the Cort test to § 3009 and concluded that the statute provides an implied private right of action for declaratory and restitutionary relief. See 554 F.2d at 380. [36] Kipperman is not persuasive authority for us because its analysis is inconsistent with the Supreme Court's subsequent decisions in Cannon, Touche Ross, and TAMA, which restructured the implied private right of action test to focus solely on legislative intent. The Kipperman opinion appears to weigh the four Cort factors roughly equally, providing no evidence that the court recognizes legislative intent as the sole determinative factor. See 554 F.2d at 380. Moreover, in its analysis of legislative intent, the Kipperman court states that we believe Congress did not consider the question of a private right of action under section 3009, and it provides no evidence that Congress intended that the statute be enforced through a private right of action. 554 F.2d at 380. Lack of evidence of intent probably would have presented no obstacle under Cort, which says that congressional intent to create a private right of action is unnecessary as long as Congress conveyed no explicit intent to deny one. See Cort, 422 U.S. at 82, 95 S.Ct. 2080. But Supreme Court cases decided since Cort and Kipperman have established that congressional intent to create a private right of action is critical, and the Kipperman court's failure to find such intent would dictate a different result in that case today.