Terrible Herbst Inc. files suit against Arco

Bill Gang

Friday, Sept. 12, 1997 | 10:10 a.m.

A legislative brouhaha in 1995 has been resurrected in a lawsuit filed by the Terrible Herbst gas station chain against Arco.

The two-pronged lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court alleges that Arco breached a contract to provide gasoline in a timely fashion to Terrible Herbst stations in Las Vegas.

The legal action also charges that Arco is responsible for defamatory statements about Terrible Herbst owner Jerry Herbst at the 1995 Nevada Legislature.

Arco lobbyist Robin Joyce had been named in numerous news reports as the person who stated that Assemblywoman Sandra Tiffany had said she was offered a bribe from Herbst to stop a vote on a major oil company bill.

Tiffany, a Henderson Republican, denies she ever made a statement that she was offered money by Herbst, who has been a major political contributor.

According to the lawsuit, because Joyce was an Arco lobbyist, the company is responsible for the allegedly defamatory statements he made.

Joyce, however, is not named in the lawsuit that seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages plus a rescission of the gasoline agreement between the two companies.

In 1995 news stories about the incident, Tiffany is alleged to have told Joyce in the legislative hallway that she was offered the money by Herbst to block a vote in her Commerce Committee on two bills.

The bills would have given large oil companies a chance to operate more of their own service stations in Nevada, rather than leasing them to local businessmen.

Tiffany admitted she talked to Herbst at the time, but "I have talked with everybody on this issue."

The bills were being fought by independent dealers, including Herbst.

ote According to the lawsuit, because Robin Joyce was an Arco lobbyist, the company is responsible for the allegedly defamatory statements he made.