The High Court in Accra has delivered judgment in favour of a Madina-based fuel station dealer in a contractual dispute with TotalEnergies Marketing PLC, ordering the oil marketing company to render accounts for rent collected from CalBank for the installation of an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) on the dealer’s land.
Presided over by Justice Patrick Baayeh, the court also directed TotalEnergies to issue a release letter to the dealer, Mr. Thomas Kofi Classpeter, within 30 days of the ruling. The letter, which is a regulatory requirement of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), would enable him to disengage from the company and operate his service station independently.
The case stemmed from a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in 2014 between the two parties, under which Mr. Classpeter operated the Powerland TotalEnergies Service Station at Madina.
TotalEnergies, in its suit filed in August 2023, sought a declaration that the MOU was valid and binding for 15 years, and further asked the court to compel the defendant to yield up the station and pay damages for alleged breach of contract.
Mr. Classpeter, however, challenged the company’s position, insisting that the MOU was intended only as a temporary six-month arrangement pending the signing of a formal agreement—which was never executed. He argued that TotalEnergies could not rely on the expired MOU to bind him beyond the initial period.
He also accused the company of refusing to issue the release letter required by the NPA, thereby preventing him from severing ties and continuing business on his own terms.
In his ruling, Justice Baayeh agreed with the defendant, holding that the MOU ceased to have legal effect after six months and could not be unilaterally extended merely because the parties had operated under it for nine years without signing a fresh contract.
On the issue of the CalBank ATM, the judge found that TotalEnergies had no right to lease a portion of the defendant’s land without his consent and to keep the rental arrangement undisclosed.
The court therefore ordered the company to present full accounts of all rent received from CalBank since the installation of the ATM and to pay 50 percent of the total proceeds to Mr. Classpeter within 60 days after filing the accounts in court.
The court, however, rejected Mr. Classpeter’s claim for damages over the delayed release letter, ruling that he had not proven the alleged losses.
Justice Baayeh awarded costs of GH¢50,000 against TotalEnergies in favour of the defendant.
