Proffitt v. Federal Deposit Insurance
Proffitt v. Federal Deposit Insurance
Opinion of the Court
Circuit Judges SILBERMAN, STEPHEN F. WILLIAMS, and SENTELLE would grant the petition for rehearing en banc.
A statement of Circuit Judge SILBERMAN dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc, in which Circuit Judges STEPHEN F. WILLIAMS and SENTELLE join, is attached.
ORDER
Petitioner’s Petition for Rehearing En Banc and the response thereto have been
ORDERED that the petition be denied.
Dissenting Opinion
with. whom STEPHEN F. .WILLIAMS and SENTELLE, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc:
I believe that this case merits en banc consideration, since it concerns the proper application of the important and oft-used provision under which the bank regulatory agencies bring enforcement actions against individuals in the banking industry. For the reasons set forth in my dissent, see Proffitt v. FDIC, 200 F.3d 855, 865 (D.C.Cir. 2000) (Silberman, J., dissenting), I think that the panel majority’s construction is incorrect and gives those agencies virtually unlimited discretion as to when they initiate proceedings. The majority opinion therefore has the curious result of formally extending our holding in Johnson v. SEC, 87 F.3d 484 (D.C.Cir. 1996) to bank regulatory agency enforcement actions, but doing so in a manner that nullifies Johnson’s effect.
On reflection, I think that my dissent should have responded more fully to the majority’s claim that my reading of section 8(e) would fail to give effect to all of the provision’s language.
I think this analysis — based on the notion that actual loss .is included within the concept of probable loss — is wholly artificial. One does not normally use the phrase “will probably suffer” a loss with the intention of incorporating the concept of an actual loss. No one talks or writes like that — certainly not a legislative draftsman. Take for example those provisions in the Sentencing Guidelines that impose an increased sentence in the event that the offense causes “death or serious bodily injury.” See, e.g., U.S.S.G. § 2Dl.l(a)(l). Of course, a person who has been killed has also suffered serious bodily injury, and thus the word “death” is in a metaphysical sense a “superfluous” term. But we would not be inclined to afford special temporal meaning to this modest overlap — to the contrary, it would seem odd if the word “death” were not separately mentioned.
Even if one thought that the term “will probably suffer” a loss necessarily includes an actual loss and is therefore redundant, a bit of redundancy is common not only in everyday speech but in legislation where the draftsman has an understandable desire to, as Macbeth put it, “make assurance double sure.” See, e.g., Shook v. D.C. Fin. Responsibility and Management Assistance Auth., 132 F.3d 775, 782 (D.C.Cir. 1998); United States v. Microsoft, 147 F.3d 935, 959 (D.C.Cir. 1998) (Wald, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). This textual canon is a most slender thread upon which to hang so dubious a construction of section 8(e).
. Nor were Proffitt’s briefs terribly helpful in responding to this argument.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Billy PROFFITT, Petitioner v. FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION, Respondent
- Status
- Published