Grappling over gas
Petcom granted interim injunction against companies linked to former directors
Published:Tuesday | July 30, 2024 | 12:09 AMCarl Gilchrist/Gleaner Writer
The Supreme Court has granted the Petroleum Company of Jamaica (Petcom) an interim injunction against three gas dealers, who the company had accused of distributing Petcom-branded cylinders to the public with their own gas.
The injunction covers the period May 24 to August 22.
Two of the directors and principals of the gas dealerships, Dean Peart and William Shagoury, are former directors of Petcom.
Efforts to each Peart and Shagoury on Monday were unsuccessful.
The oral judgment was handed down with the defendants, JAMGAS Limited (1st defendant), Bill’s Gas and Appliances Limited (2nd defendant), and Manchester Gas Distributors Limited (3rd defendant), absent from court and unrepresented.
Sundiata Gibbs, instructed by Hylton Powell, appeared for the claimant.
According to court documents, the claim by Petcom arose in April 2024 when Petcom discovered that the defendants were filling and distributing Petcom-branded cylinders to the public, an action that was unauthorised by Petcom, with any previous authority having been terminated one year earlier, in May 2023.
Petcom also discovered that Jamgas had sprayed the 2014 cylinders grey, rebranding them as ‘Jamgas’ cylinders, and has been filling and distributing them to the public.
In filing, Petcom noted that the injunction was urgently needed “to prevent members of the public from being endangered by gas which the claimant has no control of. The injunction is also urgently needed to safeguard the claimant’s goodwill, reputation and property”.
The application was filed without notice but the court made orders for it to be served along with all affidavits filed. The order for service of the documents and the date for hearing were complied with by the claimant. The hearing proceeded uncontested as no appearance or affidavits in response have been filed.
Petcom is a petroleum marketing company authorised to sell and distribute liquefied petroleum gas in bulk throughout Jamaica and became privately owned in 2016.
Court documents state Jamgas is in a similar business as Petcom and that two of Jamgas’ directors and principals, Peart and Shagoury, were directors of Petcom between 2014 and 2024.
Peart and Shagoury are also directors and principals of Bill’s Gas, a filling plant in May Pen, Clarendon. Bill’s Gas sells, fills and distributes Jamgas cylinders to the public.
Peart and Shagoury own and are the directors of the two other similar filling plants, Costal Gases Limited and Manchester Gas, according to court documents.
On May 24, Petcom initiated a claim by way of claim form and particulars of claim against Jamgas, Bill’s Gas and Manchester Gas seeking (among other things) damages and an injunction to restrain the defendants from collecting, filling, repainting, rebranding and/or distributing the cylinders bearing the specific embossing showing ‘Jamgas’ and the number 12-14 which is representative of the cylinder’s test date of December 2014, cylinders bearing the brand ‘Petcom Cookie Gas’ or any other cylinders belonging to or associated with Petcom.
The matter was heard on June 25 and on July 26, 2024. In making its decision to grant an interim injunction, the court considered the following factors: whether there are serious issues to be tried, whether the balance of convenience lies in favour of the grant of injunctive relief, whether damages are an adequate remedy, and the American Cyanamid Test.
In the 17-page document outlining the court’s decision, it was stated that “an interim injunction is granted in terms of paragraph 1 of the Notice of Application for Court Orders filed on the 24th of May 2024 until the 22nd of August 2024 or so soon thereafter as counsel maybe heard”.
The document also states that the inter-partes hearing is now scheduled for August 22, 2024 at 10 a.m. for one hour.