Cite as: 519 U. S. 213 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
The Third Circuit, providing an interlocutory appeal, 28 U. S. C. § 1292(b), reversed. It interpreted the federal statute as simply offering a safeguard against state legislation that had watered down applicable state standards of care— below a gross negligence benchmark. As so interpreted, the statute did not prohibit actions resting upon stricter standard of care rules—whether those stricter standard of care rules originated in state law (which the Circuit found applicable in the case of state-chartered banks) or in federal common law (which the Circuit found applicable in the case of federally chartered banks). Resolution Trust Corp. v. Cityfed Financial Corp., 57 F. 3d 1231, 1243-1244, 1245-1249 (1995). Noting that City Federal is a federally chartered savings institution, the Circuit concluded that the RTC was free "to pursue any claims for negligence or breach of fiduciary duty available as a matter of federal common law." Id., at 1249.
The defendants, pointing to variations in the Circuits' interpretations of the "gross negligence" statute, sought certiorari. Compare Resolution Trust Corp. v. Frates, 52 F. 3d 295 (CA10 1995) (§ 1821(k) prohibits federal common-law actions for simple negligence), with Cityfed, supra, at 1246- 1249 (§ 1821(k) does not prohibit federal common-law actions for simple negligence). And we granted review.
II
We begin by temporarily setting the federal "gross negligence" statute to the side, and by asking whether, were there no such statute, federal common law would provide the applicable legal standard. We recognize, as did the Third Circuit, that this Court did once articulate federal common-law corporate governance standards, applicable to federally chartered banks. Briggs v. Spaulding, 141 U. S. 132 (1891). See also Martin v. Webb, 110 U. S. 7, 15 (1884) (directors must "use ordinary diligence . . . and . . . exercise reasonable
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