Estate of James v. United States Department of Agriculture

OPINION

FRIEDMAN, Senior Circuit Judge.

These two cases, which were consolidated for oral argument, stem from a program under which the United States Department of Agriculture (“Department”) reduced farmers’ debts to the government that were originally secured by mortgages on their farms. The Department reduced or “wrote down” the appellants’ (collectively, the “Farmers’ ”) farm loan debts in return for the Farmers entering into shared appreciation agreements of ten years duration, under which the Farmers agreed to pay the government a part of any appreciation in the market value of their…