Court Orders Landlord to Stop Blockading Tenants’ Customer Access Roads

What Happened: It was a long running dispute: The landlord thought the tenant owed Terminal Usage Fees; the tenant disagreed. In a civil society, there are courts to resolve these types of disputes. But instead of filing a lawsuit, the landlord took matters into its own hands by blocking the access roads used by customers to get to the tenants’ liquid petroleum tanks. Rather than give in to extortion, the tenant went to court seeking a preliminary injunction barring the landlord from blocking the access roads.

Decision: The Delaware court granted the preliminary injunction.

Reasoning: Preliminary injunctions blocking an action pending the resolution of a lawsuit are hard to get. But the tenant was able to pull it off by showing that:

• It had a reasonable prospect of success on the merits of its claims—that is, that the landlord violated the lease by blocking the access roads;
• The landlord’s blockade would do irreparable harm to the tenant’s business, reputation, goodwill, and customer relationships; and
• The “balance of hardships” dictated that the injunction be granted—that is, granting the injunction would only preserve the long-running status quo, while not granting it could wreck the tenant’s business.

• Buckeye Partners, L.P. v. GT USA Wilmington, LLC: 2020 Del. Ch. LEXIS 191