Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

701 F.2d 97

Docket No. 82-4404.

Inglis v. Feinerman

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Argued and Submitted Feb. 18, 1983.

Decided March 8, 1983.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1983-03-08

3 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“to select, employ, and fix the compensation of such officers, employees, attorneys, and agents as shall be necessary for the transaction of its business, to define their duties, require bonds of them and fix the penalties thereof, and to dismiss at pleasure such officers.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Kroske v. US Bank Corp.

“that attempts to create employment rights from independent sources such as personnel manuals are void under the Federal Home Loan Bank Act ( 12 U.S.C. § 1421 , et seq.),’’ which authorizes dismissal of bank officers”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Tiede v. CorTrust Bank, N.A.

Applies 12 U.S.C. § 1421 (Federal Home Loan Bank Act) · 12 U.S.C. § 1432 · 12 U.S.C. § 341 (§ 4 of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913)

Applies CA LAB § 2922

Relies on 27 Cal. 3d 167 - Tameny v. Atlantic Richfield Co. · Bollow v. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by David Welford Williams · Decided 1983-03-08

How this case has been cited

Cited by 27 later decisions — most recently August 2009 · most notably Mele v. Federal Reserve Bank of New York (2004), Andrews v. Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta (1993)

11 federal appellate · 1 district · 10 state decisions

130198319902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*98Elizabeth G. Leavy, Carroll, Burdick & McDonough, San Francisco, Cal., for plaintiff-appellant.

¶2Robert M. Lieber, Robert L. Zaletel, Littler, Mendelson, Fastiff & Tichy, San Francisco, Cal., for defendants-appellees.

¶3Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

¶4Before CHOY and ALARCON, Circuit Judges, and D. WILLIAMS *, District Judge.

¶6DAVID W. WILLIAMS, District Judge.

¶7Appellant James G. Inglis [Inglis] appeals a District Court grant of summary judgment which upheld his termination of employment from appellee Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco [Bank] without a disciplinary hearing as outlined in the Bank’s personnel manual. The Bank claims it terminated Inglis for an admitted breach of employee confidentiality.

¶8The Bank was created under the Federal Home Loan Bank Act, 12 U.S.C. § 1421et. seq. In 12 U.S.C. § 1432(a), the Act provides in pertinent part:

the bank shall have the power to — select, employ and fix the compensation of such officers, employees, attorneys, and agents, — and to dismiss at pleasure such officers, employees and agents;

¶9(Emphasis added.)

¶10These provisions are similar to language in 12 U.S.C. § 341 (Fifth) of the Federal Reserve Act which gives Federal Reserve Banks the power to “dismiss at pleasure such officers or employees.” In Bollow v. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, 650 F.2d 1093 (9th Cir.1981), this court construed that section as preempting employee claims of wrongful discharge based on state law.

¶11The plaintiff in Bollow was terminated by a Federal Reserve Bank after eleven years of employment. He sued for reinstatement, but the bank contended it had authority to fire him by virtue of the “dismiss at pleasure” provision of 12 U.S.C. § 341 (Fifth).

¶12*99On appeal, the Ninth Circuit held that (1) federal law preempted California law and allowed the Federal Reserve Bank to dismiss its employees “at pleasure,” and (2) a letter from the bank president to plaintiff assuring him of continued employment was ultra vires under the Federal Reserve Act and thus void.

¶13In the instant case, Inglis argues that since the Bank adopted an employee manual which stated that employment was based on “good faith” and established procedures for disciplinary actions, the Bank should not be permitted to dismiss him except for certain causes. First, we note that this manual was not adopted by the Bank until well after Inglis was hired. Notwithstanding this difficulty with appellant’s claim, we follow Bollow and hold that attempts to create employment rights from independent sources such as the employment manual are void under the Federal Home Loan Bank Act.

¶14Inglis next urges us to follow Tameny v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 27 Cal.3d 167, 164 Cal-Rptr. 839, 610 P.2d 1330 (1980), which limited an employer’s right under Cal.Lab.Code § 2922 to terminate an employee “at will.” The Tameny court held that, despite § 2922, Atlantic Richfield wrongfully discharged plaintiff for refusing to participate in an illegal price fixing scheme. Appellant argues that 12 U.S.C. § 1432(a) should be similarly limited and claims that the real reason for his termination was his insistence that the Bank conform its practices to federal law. We hold that § 1432(a) permits no inroads into the “dismiss at pleasure” language.

¶15Inglis’ constitutional claims are equally without merit. Inglis did not have a sufficient property interest in continued employment to invoke due process guarantees, and the Bank’s termination of Inglis did not deprive him of any cognizable liberty interest.

¶16The decision of the District Court is affirmed.

/701/f2d/97 · .json · Public domain