Beat the King

Gulf Coast office construction projects usually don't end up in protracted legal battles against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Even more infrequent: when the feds lose.
Yet Sarasota attorney Sheryl Edwards found herself on the victorious side earlier this year. These wins “are pretty rare,” Edwards says. “There weren't a lot of cases out there we could use as guidance.”

The trial Edwards won against the FDIC — pending appeal — was held in front of U.S. District Judge James Moody in federal court in Tampa. The case revolves around a common recession theme, when the FDIC, as a receiver for a shuttered bank, rejects an active loan the failed institution held.

Dozens of development projects on the Gulf Coast, and nationwide, have been ruined by that kind of loan rejection. Of course, sometimes the repudiation of a loan makes sense because the sour loan is part of what led to the bank's demise in the first place.