Joseph v. Sasafrasnet, LLC

Dist. Ct. erred in denying plaintiff’s motion for issuance of preliminary injunction in action under Petroleum Marketing Practices Act (Act) seeking to preclude defendant from terminating plaintiff’s gas station franchise. While terms of franchise agreement allowed defendant to terminate said franchise where, as here, plaintiff made series of late gasoline payments to defendant, courts have interpreted limited reasonableness requirement through section 2801(13) of said Act when construing whether there was actual “failure“ to make timely payments. Moreover, remand was required for determination as to whether bank’s notices of lack of sufficient funds with respect to some of plaintiff’s tendered payments were within plaintiff’s control, and whether plaintiff’s failure to make timely gasoline payments was only technical or unimportant factor in parties’ franchise relationship.