Cite as: 516 U. S. 264 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
depositors have rights, enforceable in court, while the banks have obligations, which the Federal Reserve Board may establish by regulation and enforce in administrative proceedings." Ibid.
The Court of Appeals did not say whether its reading of the statute encompassed an ultimate role for federal courts, as judicial reviewers of the Board's administrative adjudications.
Midwest agrees with the Seventh Circuit that § 4010(a) alone describes court-enforceable EFA Act rights—rights that depositors can assert against banks. But unlike the Court of Appeals, Midwest is uncertain whether § 4010(f) authorizes administrative adjudication by the Federal Reserve Board. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 33-34. Remaining neutral on the Board's competence as a forum for resolving controversies between private parties, Midwest urges that the issue before this Court "is not whether the Board may adjudicate the interbank dispute between petitioner and respondent," but whether "the EFA Act confers on the federal district court jurisdiction to decide this dispute." Brief for Respondent 23. In Midwest's view, Congress intended inter-bank disputes to be resolved primarily in state rather than federal courts. Id., at 5-6.2
Both Bank One and the United States, as amicus curiae, agree with Midwest that state courts have jurisdiction over interbank check payment disputes. But Bank One and the United States maintain that § 4010(f), by providing for inter-bank "liability" up to the amount of the check as well as "other damages" in certain cases, authorizes interbank actions for violations of liability regulations prescribed by the
2 Midwest observes that UCC § 4-103, 2B U. L. A. § 4-103 (1991), treats Federal Reserve Board regulations as "agreements" between participants in the check payment system; damages for violation of the terms of such agreements, Midwest further asserts, would be recoverable as a matter of state law. See, e. g., United Postal Savings Assn. v. Royal Bank Mid-County, 784 S. W. 2d 906 (Mo. App. 1990).
271
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007