Keating Appeal Among 1,500 Turned Down by High Court

WASHINGTON - Charles Keating, Montgomery Securities, and First Pacific Bank are among litigants that will not make it to the Supreme Court this year.

The justices refused to accept these and some 1,500 other appeals filed during the summer. All of the rejections were delivered Monday without comment, marking the end of the road for these cases.

Mr. Keating, the former S&L kingpin convicted of bank fraud, said the Office of Thrift Supervision violated his constitutional right to due process. He argued in court papers that the agency unfairly forced him to defend himself from an enforcement action while he simultaneously faced civil and criminal charges in federal court.

The U.S. Solicitor General, the government's top Supreme Court litigator, opposed the appeal, arguing Mr. Keating had plenty of resources available to defend himself.

The justices also refused to take Montgomery Securities and Paine Webber v. Dannenberg, a case centered on what level of proof is required in a class-action securities fraud suit.

Bank and securities trade groups had urged the court to take the case, arguing that it has skirted the issue for two decades.

The court refused to reopen California's 1990 takeover of First Pacific Bank. Officials at the defunct bank had argued that the state had not given them an opportunity to explain the institution's financial condition.

The state, however, countered that they held countless meetings with the officers before the seizure, amassing a 15,000-page administrative record.

A challenge to the Soldier's And Sailor's Civil Relief Act also didn't make the cut. The court declined to decide if the act prevents a bank from selling a Naval officer's farm equipment, even if the officer authorized a fellow farmer to handle his accounts.

The justices decided not to resolve whether there is a limit to the number of times a lender can attempt to foreclose on the same property. William Burgmeier had argued that Agribank violated his rights by trying three times to secure the same foreclosure.

In addition, the court refused to hear a petition by Citizens Bank of Clovis, N.M., challenging a 1991 cease and desist order issued by the FDIC. It also refused to reconsider a decision by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reject Charles A. Stuckey's application for a special mortgage program.

Finally, the court declined to hear an employment discrimination suit that Boatmen's Trust Co. had won.

The Supreme Court agrees to hear fewer than 100 of the 7,000 appeals filed annually. It normally takes fewer than 25 cases from the summer filings.

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