The lawsuit was a derivative complaint alleging that 17 current and former officers and directors and BP, as a nominal defendant, breached their fiduciary duties when they “engaged in a pattern of disregard for the safety of BP’s energy exploration operations” that culminated in the drilling rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on April 10, 2010. The case was one of three shareholder actions pending before U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison in multidistrict litigation separate from the massive case pending before U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans. That case involves economic, environmental and cleanup claims against BP and other companies.
The other shareholder cases are a class action filed against BP and several of its executives and an action brought under the U.S. Employee Retirement Income Security Act by BP employees.
