Author Question: Title. Phillip and Genevieve Carboy owned and operated Gold Hill Service Station in Fairbanks, ... (Read 44 times)

c0205847 · **on:** Jun 24, 2018

Title. Phillip and Genevieve Carboy owned and operated Gold Hill Service Station in Fairbanks, Alaska. Gold Hill maintained underground storage tanks on its property to hold gasoline. When Gold Hill needed more fuel, Phillip placed an order with Petroleum Sales, Inc, which delivered the gasoline by filling the tanks. Gold Hill and Petroleum Sales were separately owned companies. Petroleum Sales did not oversee or operate Gold Hill and did not construct, install, or maintain the station's tanks, and Gold Hill did not tell Petroleum Sales's personnel how to fill the tanks. Parks Hiway Enterprises, LLC, owned the land next to Gold Hill. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation determined that benzene had contaminated the groundwater under Parks Hiway's property and identified the gasoline in Gold Hill's tanks as the probable source. Gold Hill promptly removed the tanks, but because of the contamination, Parks Hiway stopped drawing drinking water from its well. Parks Hiway filed a suit in an Alaska state court against Petroleum Sales, among others. Should the court hold the defendant liable for the pollution? Who had title to the gasoline when it contaminated the water? Explain.

Question 2

An agency ends without any action by the principal or the agent through:
a. termination through action
b. termination through inaction
c. termination by operation of law d. termination by decision of law e. termination by redefinition

jomama · **Reply #1 on:** Jun 24, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Title
The court issued a judgment in favor of Petroleum Sales, finding its relationship to the contamination too remote to impose liability. Parks Hiway appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court, which affirmed the lower court's judgment. The state supreme court explained that as a movable good, the fuel that Petroleum Sales supplied to Gold Hill was governed by . . . the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). UCC 2-401(2) provides that unless otherwise explicitly agreed, title passes to the buyer at the time and place at which the seller completes perform-ance with reference to the physical delivery of the goods.' Title toand thus, ownership ofthe fuel therefore transferred to Gold Hill when Petroleum Sales deposited it into the latter's tanks. Because Petroleum Sales owned neither the fuel nor the facility from which the fuel leaked when the contamination of Parks Hiway's groundwater occurred, Petroleum Sales is not an owner' for purposes of liability for the clean-up.

Answer to Question 2

c