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Second shareholder suit filed against BP
Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
BP, struggling to cope with the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill, has been hit in an Alaska court with another shareholder lawsuit.
The City of Deerfield Beach Non-Uniform Employees Retirement Plan filed suit May 25 in Superior Court in Anchorage against BP board members and others including John Minge, president of BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc.
The 57-page lawsuit appears to be virtually identical to a suit Jeffrey Pickett, described as an Alaska resident and BP shareholder, filed in the same court on May 20.
Law firms including Ashburn & Mason of Anchorage and Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd of San Diego brought the suits.
The latter, on its website, describes itself as a class-action specialist. In federal court in Louisiana, the firm says it has commenced a class action on behalf of stock purchasers in Transocean Ltd., whose offshore rig, the Deepwater Horizon, exploded and sank in the Gulf.
Nature of suits Both the Alaska suits, known as “shareholder derivative” actions, accuse BP directors and officers of mismanagement with respect to the Gulf disaster and environmental problems in Alaska, where BP runs the giant Prudhoe Bay field.
Each lawsuit cites certain Alaska events, such as a major pipeline leak in 2006, as examples of the company’s “laissez-faire attitude about safety and the environment.”
The City of Deerfield Beach Non-Uniform Employees Retirement Plan “is and has continuously been a shareholder of BP since at least February 2008,” the suit filed May 25 says.
Deerfield Beach is north of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Each Alaska suit asks for the same relief: compensatory and punitive damages; an injunction compelling the board to see that BP managers don’t violate safety and environmental laws; and appointment of an independent safety and environmental “corporate monitor” at BP.
BP Alaska spokesman Steve Rinehart has said the company typically doesn’t comment on litigation.
National media reports say BP has been besieged with lawsuits in lieu of the Gulf disaster.
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