Western Mountain Oil, Inc. v. Gulf Oil Corp.

726 F.2d 765, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 14262
CourtTemporary Emergency Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 22, 1983
DocketNo. 9-76
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 726 F.2d 765 (Western Mountain Oil, Inc. v. Gulf Oil Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Western Mountain Oil, Inc. v. Gulf Oil Corp., 726 F.2d 765, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 14262 (tecoa 1983).

Opinion

GARZA, Judge:

Western Mountain Oil, Inc. (“Western Mountain”) brought this action for petroleum pricing overcharges against Gulf Oil Corporation (“Gulf”) under the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act of 1973 (EPAA), 15 U.S.C. § 751 et seq. and § 210 of the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970 (ESA), as amended, 12 U.S.C. § 1904 (note). The district court, 575 F.Supp. 813, granted summary judgment for Gulf, holding that Western Mountain’s action was barred by limitations.

Background Facts

Western Mountain alleged that from August, 1966, through December 31, 1973, Gulf, a refiner, sold branded grades of motor gasoline to Western Mountain, a gasoline reseller based in Reno, Nevada. Gulf stopped selling branded gasoline to Western Mountain as of December 31, 1973, after having announced its intention to withdraw from marketing in the Pacific Northwest, including northern Nevada. When the mandatory petroleum regulations went into effect in 1973, requiring Gulf to continue supplying its 1972 purchasers, Gulf and Western Mountain entered into a three-year contract whereby Gulf agreed to supply Western Mountain with unbranded gasoline from January 1,1974, through December 31, 1976.

In computing its prices to Western Mountain for unbranded gasoline, Gulf utilized the prices for May 15, 1973, in Platt’s Oil-gram, a trade newspaper. Gulf did not use these same prices for its other newly unbranded jobbers in northern California, however, which received gasoline from the same Gulf refinery as Western Mountain. Instead, Gulf used the lower May 15, 1973, prices of an existing Gulf unbranded class of purchasers in California. When Western Mountain inquired in December, 1973, as to the manner in which the prices for the unbranded grades of gasoline would be determined, Gulf replied that the prices would be based upon prices in Platt’s Oilgram, and that the Federal Energy Office (a predecessor of the Department of Energy) had approved this pricing method as being in compliance with the pricing regulations. In truth, this pricing method had received no such approval, a fact which Western Mountain did not learn until January of 1977. Western Mountain also discovered that other former Gulf branded jobbers in California had been assigned lower prices than Western Mountain when Gulf unbranded them.

Western Mountain brought suit against Gulf for these overcharges on December 15, 1977. The district court granted summary judgment for Gulf, holding that Western Mountain’s claims were barred by limitations. Applying the most analogous state law of limitations, the court found that the three-year limitations period provided by Nev.Rev.Stat. § 11.190(3)(a) applied to Western Mountain’s claim to recover unintentionally imposed overcharges, and that the two-year period provided by Nev.Rev. Stat. § 11.190(4)(b) applied to its claim for intentional overcharges. The district court further found that Western Mountain’s causes of action had accrued on January 1, 1974, the date the overcharging began, and thus under federal law the limitations periods began running on that date. Finally, the district court held that Gulf’s representations did not amount to a fraudulent concealment of any of the operative facts upon which Western Mountain’s claims were based, and that therefore no tolling of the limitations period occurred.

I.

Western Mountain does not dispute the applicability of the Nevada limitations statutes to its claims. Instead, it complains the trial court erred in failing to apply Nevada’s time commencement statute together with its limitations statutes. That statute provides that the limitations period begins to run “from the last transaction or the last item charged...” Nev.Rev.Stat. § 11.200. Stated simply, appellant contends that where a state statute of limitations is to be [767]*767applied to a cause of action arising under a federal statute, and the federal statute contains no standard governing the running of the limitations period, the state’s time commencement statute should control.

We disagree. Although Nevada’s statute of limitations decides the period of time within which the plaintiff must sue once its cause of action has accrued, “any issue relating to accrual and tolling is governed by federal law.” Ashland Oil Co. of Cal. v. Union Oil Co. of Cal., 567 F.2d 984, 988 (Temp.Emer.Ct.App.1977), cert, denied, 435 U.S. 994, 98 S.Ct. 1644, 56 L.Ed.2d 83 (1978). Appellant’s cause of action under the EPAA is federally-created, and we must look to federal law to determine the point at which a complete cause of action exists upon which the plaintiff may sue. See, Cope v. Anderson, 331 U.S. 461, 464, 67 S.Ct. 1340, 1341, 91 L.Ed. 1602 (1946); Rawlings v. Ray, 312 U.S. 96, 98, 61 S.Ct. 473, 474, 85 L.Ed. 605 (1941).

II.

Western Mountain next complains that, even if the issue of accrual is determined by reference to federal law, the district court incorrectly decided that its cause of action against Gulf accrued on the date the overcharging began. Appellant argues that it was overcharged each time it purchased petroleum products from Gulf during the years in question, and that each sale amounted to a violation of the pricing regulations. Western Mountain therefore contends that each sale gave rise to a separate cause of action. Under this theory, the three-year statute of limitations would bar recovery of only those unintentional overcharges occurring more than three years prior to the filing of its complaint in December, 1977. Likewise, the two-year statute would preclude recovery only of intentional overcharges occurring more than two years prior to December, 1977.

In rejecting this theory, the district court based its decision on two cases decided by this Court, Siegel Oil Co. v. Gulf Oil Corp., 701 F.2d 149 (Temp.Emer.Ct.App.1983) and Shell Oil Co. v. Nelson Oil Co., Inc., 627 F.2d 228 (Temp.Emer.Ct.App.), cert, denied, 449 U.S. 1022; 101 S.Ct. 590, 66 L.Ed.2d 484 (1980). In Siegel, the plaintiff sued Gulf alleging that Gulf improperly substituted Acorn Petroleum, Inc. as the supplier of petroleum products that Gulf was required to supply. The plaintiff contended that each month Gulf had a new obligation to supply petroleum and that a new violation, therefore, occurred each month. This Court, citing Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc., 401 U.S. 321, 91 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
726 F.2d 765, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 14262, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/western-mountain-oil-inc-v-gulf-oil-corp-tecoa-1983.