In Mike Madani et al. v. Shell Oil Co. et al., Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a putative class action filed by gas station owners in California accusing Shell Oil Co., Chevron Corp., and Saudi Refining Inc. of engaging in a scheme to fix fuel prices for U.S. franchise owners during monthly closed-door meetings between the chairmen of the three companies. The suit further accused executives of destroying records and claimed that once-existing joint ventures trampled on federal antitrust laws and led to inflated wholesale gas prices in almost every U.S. state between 1999 and 2001. In dismissing plaintiffs’ suit as being time-barred, the court rejected plaintiffs’ argument that the statute of limitations for the suit should be tolled while a separate class action filed by Shell and Texaco Inc. retailers over the same alleged scheme, but with a different legal theory was pending. The court held that according to the current suit, defendants violated the Sherman Act under the rule of reason and since the plaintiffs in the previous case expressly waived the rule of reason, plaintiffs in the new suit were effectively trying to get a “second bite at the apple.”