Case No. RR300-00288
December 6, 1996
DECISION AND ORDER
OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Motion for Reconsideration
Name of Petitioner: Gulf Oil Corporation/D.L. Cheaves
Date of Filing: August 22, 1996
Case Number: RR300-00288
On March 20, 1992, the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) of the Department of Energy (DOE) dismissed as incomplete an Application for Refund filed by Mr. D.L. Cheaves of Wesley Chapel Gulf in the Gulf Oil Corporation special refund proceeding (Case No. RF300- 11804). This Decision and Order considers a Motion for Reconsideration (Motion) filed on behalf of D.L. Cheaves by his daughter, Laudette Doudna. If this Motion is approved, Mr. Cheaves will receive a refund for his purchases of Gulf products during the Gulf consent order period (August 1973 to January 1981).
The Refund Application
In the original Application, Case No. RF300-11804, Mr. Cheaves claimed that he purchased 4,483,532 gallons of petroleum products under Gulf Customer Number 2165752-3 during the Gulf consent order period. Mr. Cheaves submitted a copy of the Gulf Customer List which shows that a Gulf station named "Wesley Chapel Gulf" located at 2645 Wesley Chapel Road purchased 4,483,532 gallons of Gulf products under that Customer Number during the relevant time period. That is the address listed on Mr. Cheaves' Application for Refund for Wesley Chapel Gulf.
However, Mr. Cheaves had not submitted any information verifying that he operated the gas station located at 2645 Wesley Chapel Road during the consent order period, nor was his name included on the Gulf Customer List. As such, we requested that he provide documentation demonstrating that he operated the station referenced on the Gulf Customer List (under Gulf Customer Number 2165752-3) during the relevant time period. Despite two written requests for this information (mailed on April 1, 1991 and January 27, 1992), and one telephone call to Mr. Cheaves on July 23, 1991, Mr. Cheaves did not submit the information necessary to complete his
Application for Refund. Therefore, on March 20, 1992, we dismissed as incomplete the Application for Refund filed by Mr. Cheaves on behalf of Wesley Chapel Gulf, Case No. RF300-11804.
Motion for Reconsideration
On August 22, 1996, we received a Motion for Reconsideration filed on behalf of Mr. Cheaves by his daughter, Laudette Doudna. In the Motion, Ms. Doudna explains that Mr. Cheaves has been ill for many years. During the year when the OHA was requesting additional information from Mr. Cheaves (April 1991 to March 1992), he was recovering from the death of his wife, experiencing severe confusion and depression due to hypoglycemia, and was injured in a serious automobile accident. To further complicate matters, Mr. Cheaves contacted the filing service which had assisted him in filing the Application and was told that the only acceptable documentation to verify that he operated Wesley Chapel Gulf during the refund period was: 1) a canceled check, 2) a business license, or 3) an invoice from the refund period. Mr. Cheaves did not have any of these three items and was unaware that he could prove that he operated the station through other means. His belief that proving ownership would be impossible without these specific documents, coupled with his extreme emotional and physical distress during that time period, resulted in Mr. Cheaves deciding not to submit any additional information. Ms. Doudna has since taken over her father's business affairs and has submitted this Motion, along with supporting documentation verifying Mr. Cheaves' recent emotional and physical problems as well as his ownership of Wesley Chapel Gulf during the refund period. Based on these extenuating circumstances, Ms. Doudna requests that we grant a refund to Mr. Cheaves for the gallons claimed in Case No. RF300-11804.
Conclusions
We commenced accepting Refund Applications in the Gulf refund proceeding on September 8, 1987, more than eight years ago. While the originally-announced deadline for such submissions was June 30, 1988, we continued to liberally accept Applications after the deadline. In June 1992, after reviewing the length of time the refund period had been open, and noting that we had already received more than 20,000 Gulf Refund Applications, we concluded that eligible Applicants had been provided ample opportunity to file. Therefore, we announced that we would not accept Applications postmarked after March 1, 1993. We published a Notice to that effect in the Federal Register, stating specifically that all new
Applications for Refund from the Gulf consent Order fund postmarked after the final filing date of March 1, 1993 would be subject to summary dismissal. 57 Fed. Reg. 27771 (June 22, 1992). See also, Gulf Oil Corporation/Evarts Service Station, 23 DOE ¶ 85,016 (1993).
Although the filing deadline for new cases has passed, we will generally review all Motions for Reconsideration to see if a compelling reason to re-open the case is presented. See Gulf Oil Corporation/Villa Maria Gulf, Case No. RF300-00251 (April 23, 1993). After analyzing the Motion submitted on behalf of Mr. Cheaves, we have determined that there are compelling reasons for the claim to be reconsidered. First, the serious nature of Mr. Cheaves' health problems during the year when the OHA was requesting information from him made it extremely difficult for Mr. Cheaves to respond to our requests in a timely manner. Second, the misinformation Mr. Cheaves received from his filing service concerning the type of documentation we required to verify that he operated the station during the refund period made Mr. Cheaves honestly believe that providing such verification would be impossible. We have determined that Mr. Cheaves' emotional and physical distress during the relevant time period, coupled with his belief (based on statements made by his filing service) that obtaining the information would be impossible, provide a reasonable explanation of why Mr. Cheaves did not respond to our information requests, and why he did not request a Motion for Reconsideration at an earlier date. Finally, Ms. Doudna's explanation that she only became aware of the dismissed refund claim after moving home and taking over her father's business affairs, and hence could not file a Motion for Reconsideration on her father's behalf prior to that time, is a reasonable justification for the lateness of the filing.
We find that the Motion for Reconsideration filed by Mr. D.L. Cheaves has met the standards established for Motions for Reconsideration in the Gulf proceeding. In reexamining this case, we note that Ms. Doudna has now submitted two signed and notarized affidavits verifying that her father, D.L. Cheaves, owned and operated Wesley Chapel Gulf, located at 2645 Wesley Chapel Road, during the period August 1973 to January 1981. On the Gulf Customer List, Wesley Chapel Gulf is listed as purchasing 4,483,532 gallons of Gulf products under Gulf customer number 2165752-3 during the consent order period. Mr. Cheaves has indicated that he believes the gallonage claim listed in his Application for Refund is reasonable.
Because Mr. Cheaves has established that he operated the Gulf station during the relevant time period, and that the station purchased 4,483,532 gallons of Gulf products during that time, we have determined that this Motion for Reconsideration should be granted. Mr. Cheaves will receive a refund amount equal to his allocable share of the Gulf consent order funds (the principal amount), as well as interest accrued on the principal since the consent order funds were placed in escrow.(1)The total refund amount that Mr. Cheaves will receive is $5,604 (4,483,532 x $.00125 = $5,604).
It Is Therefore Ordered That:
(1) The Motion for Reconsideration filed on behalf of Mr. D.L. Cheaves, Case No. RR300-00288, is hereby granted as set forth in paragraph (2) below.
(2) The Director of Special Accounts and Payroll, Office of Departmental Accounting and Financial Systems Development, Office of the Controller of the Department of Energy shall take appropriate action to disburse a total of $5,604 from the DOE deposit fund escrow account maintained at the Department of the Treasury and funded by Gulf Oil Corporation, Consent Order No. RGFA00001Z, to the Applicant.
(3) The Motion For Reconsideration was filed directly by Mr. Cheaves and his daughter, Ms. Laudette Doudna. As such, the refund check in the amount of $5,604 should be sent to: "Mr. D.L. Cheaves, c/o Laudette Doudna, 600 Portico Point, Alpharetta, GA 30202."
(4) The determinations made in this Decision and Order are based on the presumed validity of statements and documentary material submitted by the Applicant. Any of these determinations may be revoked or modified at any time upon a determination that the factual basis underlying the Application for Refund is incorrect.
(5) This is a final Order of the Department of Energy.
George B. Breznay
Director
Office of Hearings and Appeals
Date: December 6, 1996
(1)1/ Interest has been computed on the basis of 7 percent compounded yearly since June 20, 1985, the date that Gulf remitted the consent order funds to the DOE. Each Applicant's refund amount will be calculated by multiplying its approved gallonage by the total volumetric to date, which is $.00125 (principal volumetric of $.00064 + interest volumetric to date of $.00061 = $.00125).