Three lawsuits have taken the "hot fuel" controversy into federal courts in Missouri and Kansas, seeking extensive damages and changes in how fuel is sold in the two states.</p><p>Each suit seeks class-action status, which would mean every prospective juror and even the judges might be eligible if damages were awarded.</p><p>"We think, ultimately, everybody in the courtroom in any of these cases regarding hot fuel is likely a member of a class," said Robert W. Russell, a partner in the Sedalia, Mo., law firm of Kempton & Russell LLC.</p><p>Two of the lawsuits, similar to ones filed previously in California and New Jersey, claim consumers have been overcharged because retail gas pumps don't account for expansion of gasoline as it warms beyond the industry measurement standard. Hotter fuel means consumers get less energy from a 231-cubic-inch gallon of gasoline when it burns to run cars, trucks and other engines. Retail fuel pumps don't adjust for the expansion.</p><p>Wholesale transactions, on the other hand, are routinely adjusted to account for fuel's expansion at temperatures higher than 60 degrees, which the industry has set as the standard for a gallon of fuel, the suits said.</p><p>These two suits, filed separately in U.S. District Court in Missouri and Kansas, seek claims of at least $5 million.</p><p>They also seek court injunctions to require companies to "retrofit and install temperature-correction devices to avoid future damages."</p><p>The Missouri General Assembly is set to consider legislation to require temperature-based adjustments at the pump. The National Conference on Weights and Measures also may take up the issue, having received recommendations from two regional associations to adjust for temperature fluctuations.</p><p>Those actions follow extensive reporting on the hot fuel issue in The Kansas City Star.</p><p>Combined, the two suits name 21 companies that attorney Robert A. Horn said operate in one or both states. Others could be added, said Horn, a partner in the Kansas City law firm of Horn Aylward & Bandy LLC.</p><p>Among the defendants are large oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp., as well as retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. doing business as Sam's Club.</p><p>Exxon officials were not immediately available for comment. A Wal-Mart spokesman declined comment because the company has not been served.</p><p>The American Petroleum Institute, a trade group that represents the oil industry, as a matter of policy does not comment on litigation. But in recent months the institute has said that any fix addressing the hot-fuel issue would require equipping retail pumps with billions of dollars of gear that would offset any benefit. Moreover, the institute has said, much of the cost would be shouldered by the independent businesses that own most gas stations.</p><p>A third suit, in U.S. District Court in Jefferson City, claims hot fuel allows gasoline and diesel retailers to collect more in federal and state taxes than is paid to the taxing authorities. It said the taxes are collected at the wholesale level, where transactions are adjusted to the standard 60-degree gallon.</p><p>Retailers recover the tax payments by charging consumers the same tax rates at the pumps. The suit said failure to adjust for expansion of fuel above 60 degrees allowed the companies to collect more in taxes than they paid to state and federal coffers. The excess becomes revenue for the gasoline retailers, Russell said.</p><p>The tax suit names eight fuel retailers. It does not seek action against large oil companies named in the other suits.</p><p>Russell said he did not know how much money the tax collections had allowed companies to keep. The tax suit also seeks unspecified punitive damages.</p><p>To reach Mark Davis, call (816) 234-4372 or send e-mail to mdavis@kcstar.com.