BP stockholder lawsuit filed in AK

[imurhuckleberry]

Source: Salon A/P

A stockholder lawsuit claims "gross mismanagement" by top BP officials has severely damaged the company's reputation and hurt its value.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Superior Court in Anchorage, alleges the officials did not take the necessary steps to ensure BP compliance with safety rules and environmental safeguards, citing last month's oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, a 2005 refinery blast in Texas and concerns U.S. Reps. Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak raised earlier this year about BP operations on Alaska's North Slope.

"Defendants' disdain for safety and environmental laws, and the resulting loss of lives and property, has plunged BP into a public relations crisis," the lawsuit claims. This has resulted in BP being "tagged as an unsafe company and gross polluter, all of which are extremely negative developments which are hurting BP's business."

A spokesman for BP in Alaska, Steve Rinehart, declined comment on pending litigation.

Defendants in the suit include BP chief executive Tony Hayward; members of BP's board of directors; Lamar McKay, president of BP America, Inc.; and John Minge, head of BP Exploration Alaska. The named plaintiff is Jeffrey Pickett, identified as a BP shareholder since at least late 2000 acting "for the benefit" of BP. A message left for a Jeffrey Pickett in Anchorage wasn't immediately returned.

Read more: http://www.salon.com/wires/techbiz/2010/05/20/D9FQU5880_us_bp_stockholder_lawsuit/index.html

[protocol rv]

1. Nice, the guy is suing himself

If he's a stockholder, then he's suing himself, I suppose. All this does is get BP to spend money on lawyers who'll defend this case.

[dipsydoodle]

2. That's an odd way of expressing it.

It's not unusual for a stockholder to do something like this given the circumstances and maybe was to be expected given that 39% of BP's shares are US owned.

[TexasObserver]

4. You're misinformed. He's suing the officers and directors.

It's a way of holding them accountable, a way of exposing their misdeeds, a way of getting them out of office, a way of cancelling their golden deals, a way of triggering the company's D&O insurance coverage.

[TexasObserver]

3. BP stock has lost 1/3 its value recently, down to 44 from 66.

http://www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=staticchart&s=NY%5EBP&p=1&t=15

The stockholders have a good claim against the company's officers and directors.

I wholeheartedly applaud this lawsuit.

[aquart]

5. Me, too! Me, too!

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Kicking and jumping for joy.

I wake up every morning tense and angry after bad dreams about the poor creatures of the once
beautiful Gulf.
And how the corporations are acting as if THEY owned everything and everybody on the planet.
ENOUGH!!!!!!

The Karma train cannot come fast enough to them.

My deepest hope is that enough people will reach the "click" point and just determinedly start using alternatives to oil.
Enough people, enough demand, a change will come. It always has.

[Mira]

7. Yes - you reminded me of the Hundredth Monkey theory

http://www.wowzone.com/monkey.htm

I am pleased at the action taken. But until the leak is stopped I can't think of much of anything in the line of blaming and punishing.
Watch out though for when the crisis mode is changed to cleanup and containment.
We should be after them forever and in every way possible.

I am so angry.

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