Rodriguez v. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 25, 2020 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- February 25, 2020
- Term
- October Term 2019
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Gorsuch
- Issue area
- Federal Taxation
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Unspecifiable
Opinion excerpt
Justice GORSUCH delivered the opinion of the Court. This case grows from a fight over a tax refund. But the question we face isn't who gets the money, only how to decide the dispute. Should federal courts rely on state law, together with any applicable federal rules, or should they devise their own federal common law test? To ask the question is nearly to answer it. The cases in which federal courts may engage in common lawmaking are few and far between. This is one of the cases that lie between. The trouble here started when the United Western Bank hit hard times, entered receivership, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took the reins. Not long after that, the bank's parent, United Western Bancorp, Inc., faced its own problems and was forced into bankruptcy, led now by a trustee, Simon Rodriguez. When the Internal Revenue Service issued a $4 million tax refund, each of these newly assigned caretakers understandably sought to claim the money. Unable to resolve their differences, they took the matter to court. The case wound its way through a bankruptcy court and a federal district court before eventually landing in the Tenth Circuit. At the end of it all, the court of appeals ruled for the FDIC, as receiver for the subsidiary bank, rather than for Mr. Rodriguez, as trustee for the corporate parent. How could two separate corporate entities both claim entitlement to…
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