
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 26, 1991                   TAG: 9103260560
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

COURT BACKS REGULATORS IN S&L CASE

The Supreme Court removed a major threat to the government's efforts to police the savings and loan industry today as it killed a lawsuit against federal regulators by a failed Texas thrift's former owner.

The court unanimously ruled that federal regulators may not be sued over their alleged negligence in handling the day-to-day operations of ailing savings and loan institutions.

The ruling scuttled a lawsuit by Thomas Gaubert, former owner of and largest shareholder in the Irving-based Independent American Savings Association. The suit contended that government regulators caused the S&L's financial ruin.

A federal appeals court had ruled for Gaubert, clearing the way for his suit. That ruling was reversed by today's decision.

Gaubert had been seeking compensation for $25 million worth of real estate he lost when the thrift went bankrupt.

Gaubert, a prominent political fund-raiser who once persuaded former House Speaker Jim Wright, a Texas Democrat, to intervene with federal regulators in his behalf, acquired a controlling interest in the thrift in 1983.

Gaubert sued under a law that in some instances waives the federal government's sovereign immunity. The law, the Federal Tort Claims Act, does not allow lawsuits based on federal employees' discretionary duties - and government lawyers cited that exception in seeking to have Gaubert's suit dismissed.

by CNB