March 02, 2010, 10:34 AM EST
By Greg Stohr
March 2 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Supreme Court bolstered the ability of oil companies to change their leases with independent service station owners, blocking a Massachusetts lawsuit against Shell Oil Co. and Motiva Enterprises LLC.
The Supreme Court today unanimously said the suit by a group of station owners cant go forward under the U.S. Petroleum Marketing Practices Act, a 1978 law that gave independent station owners more power in their dealings with oil companies.
The station owners said Shell and Motiva used rent increases to try to end their franchise arrangements so the companies could take over operation of the stations.
The station owners at one point won a $3.3 million jury verdict. A federal appeals court upheld part of the award and both sides appealed to the Supreme Court.
The cases are Macs Shell Service v. Shell Oil Products, 08-240, and Shell Oil Products v. Macs Shell Service, 08-372.
–Editors: Jim Rubin, Laurie Asseo.
To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at [email protected].
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Kirk at 1-202-654-4315 or [email protected]
*This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, the Independent Shell Archive, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years. *All conjured up by internet wizz, Nick Gill.
