Privy Council rules for South gas stations

TWO gas station operators in south Trinidad will receive compensation for the suspension of their retail licences by the Minister of Energy in 2012. The quantum of damages for each owner will be decided by the High Court.

In a decision delivered on Monday, the Privy Council in London overturned a majority decision of Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Justice of Appeal Nolan Bereaux. Justice Peter Jamadhar dissented.

The Appeal Court judges had set aside an order of Justice Carol Gobin who, in 2014, found that the Minister of Energy went beyond his powers when he ordered the two gas stations, owned by brothers Prakash and Adesh Maharaj, to be shut down. Adesh Maharaj took over the King’s Wharf station from his father, in whose name the licence was assigned.

After his father died, NP told Adesh Maharaj it was prepared to treat him as the licensed holder until the licence was reassigned to his name. In Prakash Maharaj’s case, he was granted a retail marketing licence in 2001, had been continually issued a renewed licence until 2010 and his annual fee was paid up until 2012, since up until 2010, renewed licences had not been formally issued by the ministry.

His station is in Fyzabad. In November and December 2012, the brothers were accused of breach of the petroleum regulations and impropriety, and the stations were shut down by the ministry. Justice Gobin found the ministry’s action was “ultra vires, null and void and of no effect.”

At the Privy Council, both brothers accepted that with the lapse of time since Gobin made her order, it was not practicable for them to ask that their licences be restored, but said they are entitled to damages for the loss of their licences to the present time and loss of opportunity to continue operations in the future.

In its decision, the Privy Council held that the licences did not state that they were subject to any power of revocation or suspension on the part of the minister.

“The Board cannot accept the minister’s contention that a power of revocation of a licence imports a power to suspend it as well. A power of suspension according to the discretion of the minister is different in kind from a power of revocation,” the judgement said.

“The purported suspension of the relevant de facto licences was unlawful,” it added. It also said that the brothers were entitled to compensation for their loss of profit during the remaining period of the license.

The High Court will determine the amount payable and the period for which damages should be paid. The two gas station owners were represented by Peter Knox, QC, Ramesh L. Maharaj, SC, Robert Strang, instructed by BDB Pitmans. Thomas Roe, QC, instructed by Charles Russell Speechlys represented the Energy Minister.