By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

FOLLOWING an order from the judicial panel on multi-district litigation, the U.S. District Court of Guam has transferred the motor fuel temperature sales practices litigation to the U.S. District of Kansas.
The case filed by former Attorney General Douglas Moylan against oil firms in behalf of Guam motor fuel consumers is now assigned to Judge Kathryn Vratil of Kansas City who will preside on 32 other similar cases filed all over the United States on behalf of consumers who are allegedly being ripped off by oil companies by selling fuel without adjusting its true quantity which is inflated by the high temperature on the island.
Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood recently assigned Guam Superior Court Chief Justice F. Philip Carbullido to preside on the class action suit after disqualifying herself from the case because her sister and brother-in-law have an interest in one of the involved fuel companies.
An amended class action with lead plaintiffs Evy Young and Edgar Taz demands a jury trial against ConocoPhillips Co. Mobil Oil Guam Inc., Shell Guam Inc., and South Pacific Petroleum Corporation.
The plaintiffs are asking for a jury trial on alleged violations of the Guam Deceptive Trade Practice Consumer Protection Act, breach of contract, fraudulent concealment of taxes, fraudulent concealment of fuel quantities delivered, conversion of moneys taken from plaintiffs and the class, and unjust enrichment of the defendants.
The civil case alleges that class members are getting a smaller quantity of fuel than that for which he or she was charged.
Moylan said all engines — whether internal combustion, diesel, rotary or jet — harness energy by burning fuel to power planes, trains, automobiles, trucks, boats, motorcycles, and other engine-driven devices like lawnmowers and generators.
"When consumers buy fuel, they are quite literally buying energy. The energy content of motor fuels is measured and expressed in terms of British Thermal Units, or BTUs. When the temperature of motor fuel increases, the fuel expands and becomes less dense, thereby increasing in volume," said Moylan.
"As the temperature of motor fuel decreases, the fuel contracts and becomes denser, decreasing in volume. Accordingly, the same amount of motor fuel at a higher temperature will occupy a greater volume, taking up more space than it does at a lower temperature," he added.
To provide certainty and predictability in petroleum transactions, the petroleum industry created a standard adopted throughout the United States petroleum industry to declare imported petroleum products in gallons of 231 cubic inches at 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Federal Trade Commission has adopted as a mandatory standard the definition of a gallon as 231 cubic inches at 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
To resolve inconsistency, temperature-compensation equipment has been created. The equipment automatically adjusts each pumped gallon of motor fuel to provide a volume greater than 231 cubic inches when temperature of the fuel exceeds 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
But because the petroleum industry profits from the sale of hot motor fuel to consumers at non-standard, non-temperature-adjusted "gallons," the industry has repeatedly fought efforts to require the installation of the said equipment at their retail outlets, said Moylan.
He said the retail sellers of oil companies refused to install such compensation equipment and franchisors that control the specifications of the fuel-dispensing devices at their franchisees’ retail locations routinely prohibit those franchisees from installing compensation equipment.
To support the claim, Moylan further stated that the petroleum industry has voluntarily implemented the use of the industry standard gallon in Canadian retail sales through the voluntary and widespread use of temperature compensation equipment at retail pumps because in Canada the average temperature of fuel sold is less than 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
"If the petroleum industry were to measure its retail deliveries of motor fuel to Canadian consumers by the same non-standard gallon it uses for U.S. consumers, Canadian consumers would receive substantially larger quantities of motor fuel per non-standard gallon as compared to motor fuel measured at 60 degrees Fahrenheit," Moylan said.
Moylan said that the inference from the petroleum industry’s inconsistent stance on temperature compensation equipment should be clear, adding that the industry-wide practice in the U.S. of selling nonstandard, non-temperature-adjusted motor fuel at the retail level has additional anti-competitive effects that benefit retailers at the expense of consumers.
"The actual amount of fuel that a consumer obtains at a given price varies widely across retailers and purchases," Moylan said.