Partners in Shell gas-station businesses in Westchester County are free to oust a managing partner with whom they are locked in lawsuits for control of the business, after a state Supreme Court judge recently lifted a court injunction.
The June 7 decision by Justice Bruce E. Tolbert allows investors Leon Silverman and James A. Weil to seek to remove Sammy El Jamal as managing member of their NY Fuel Holdings L.L.C. and related companies. El Jamal, who also owns Wholesale Fuels in Thornwood, in 2011 went to court to prevent his partners from removing him from the gas-station business venture, which began in 2010 with the partners”™ $43 million purchase of Shell gas station properties and leases in Westchester and metropolitan New York.
Supreme Court Justice William Giacomo in January granted a preliminary injunction that blocked company meetings to remove El Jamal as managing member. El Jamal, though, never posted a $1 million undertaking required by the judge that was due in March. Giacomo this month recused himself from the case.
El Jamal’s attorneys argued his removal as manager of the service-station business will put the partners in default on a $33 million bank loan for which only El Jamal is personally liable.
Tolbert, though, in his decision said his opponents have letters from the seller, a Shell Oil subsidiary, and the lender, M & T Bank, that list conditions for waiving their requirement that El Jamal remain as manager.
