Colorado drivers who were shocked to find themselves stuck after filling up with contaminated fuel across the Front Range last week may find relief in a new class action lawsuit proposed in Denver on Tuesday.
List: Here are the Colorado gas stations that pumped contaminated gas
Ryan Mahon, a Littleton resident, is suing on behalf of himself and “all similarly situated persons” affected by the contaminated gas that an HF Sinclair terminal in Henderson distributed across the metro area last week, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday evening in Denver District Court.
The lawsuit had not yet been certified as a class action as of Thursday morning, but that certification had been requested by Mahon’s attorneys at Franklin D. Azar & Associates, P.C., a personal injury law firm.
Anyone who experienced engine issues after filling up with gas last week is asked to contact the law firm at 1-303-800-0000.
The firm had already received hundreds of phone calls as of Thursday morning, Frank Azar said. Unfortunately, the process to certify and see through a class action lawsuit can take years and years, he said.
“I think this could turn out to be a real mess, with everyone suing everyone else,” Azar said, referring to the potential for additional lawsuits between the gas stations where contaminated fuel was sold and Sinclair, the distributor.
Mahon purchased roughly 28 gallons of gas for his Toyota Tundra from a Costco gas station in Englewood at about 8:30 a.m. Jan. 8, according to the lawsuit. He noticed his truck was not running properly immediately after purchasing the fuel and returned to the gas station.
He opened his hood in the Costco parking lot and notified gas station staff that there was an issue with the fuel, the lawsuit stated. Mahon then contacted the Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety to report the issue and file a complaint.
While he was still waiting in the parking lot, with the hood of his truck propped open, Mahon saw Colorado investigators with the division arrive on site and collect samples from Costco’s gas storage tanks. That’s when he decided to get his vehicle towed to a nearby Toyota dealership for inspection.
Dealership technicians told Mahon that his engine had malfunctioned because of contaminated fuel and that several parts of the engine and fuel systems may have been damaged, the lawsuit stated.
“It’s like putting mud in your engine,” Azar said.
As of Wednesday morning, Colorado’s Division of Oil and Public Safety had received more than 600 complaints from drivers who experienced engine issues after filling up with contaminated fuel at dozens of gas stations across the state’s Front Range.
At that time, all the contaminated gasoline had been recovered and returned to Sinclair from 46 stations across metro Denver, Division of Oil and Public Safety spokesperson Zach Hope said.
The exact number of people affected remained unknown on Thursday, but the lawsuit alleged the number may be in the thousands.
“Because the Class encompasses hundreds, if not thousands, of claims, a single Colorado class action is more efficient than thousands of individual actions, each requiring the same discovery and proof,” the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit names Sinclair and the owners of the gas stations where the contaminated gas was sold: King Soopers Fuel Center, Costco Wholesale Corporation and Murphy Express.
Those four parties are guilty of negligence, violating the Colorado Consumer Protection Act, defective product and breaching the warranty of merchantability — which “asserts that the goods are reasonably fit for (their) ordinary and intended purpose for which they are sold and are free of defects,” according to Cornell Law School — the lawsuit claims.
The distributor and gas stations engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices by “knowingly or recklessly representing that the contaminated fuel was safe to use,” according to the lawsuit. The parties also failed to use “reasonable care” to prevent the gasoline from being contaminated by diesel and then to prevent the contaminated fuel from being sold.
Sinclair, King Soopers, Costco and Murphy Oil USA did not respond to requests for comment.
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