BP Exploration & Oil, Inc. v. Hopkins

Facts

Troy Hopkins and his daughter, Charlotte Hopkins Hermann ("the Hopkinses"), together as business partners, operated a gasoline service station in Mobile, as a licensed motor fuel dealer for BP Exploration Oil, Inc. ("BP"),1 until they closed their business in 1991. In 1986, the Hopkinses sued BP, alleging that BP had violated the Alabama Motor Fuel Marketing Act ("AMFMA"), Ala. Code 1975, § 8-22-1 et seq., because, they said, BP had "transferred" fuel from its wholesale level to its own company stations at a "transfer price" that was lower than the price at which BP sold gasoline to the…