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By KEVIN McGILL, Associated Press Writer Kevin Mcgill, Associated Press Writer
Mon May 10, 11:37 am ET
NEW ORLEANS A BP shareholder has filed suit against the corporation's top
executives because of the offshore rig disaster that has led to the growing oil
leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
Filed in federal court in New Orleans on Friday, the lawsuit by Pennsylvania
resident Katherine Firpo accuses Anthony B. Hayward, the chief executive
officer of BP PLC, and other executives of the London-based corporation, of
ignoring safety issues on rigs such as the Deepwater Horizon, which exploded on
April 20.
And she accuses them of pursuing cost-cutting measures at the expense of
safety, while lobbying government authorities to decrease safety regulation.
The lawsuit says the rig accident and the leak it caused will cost BP tens of
billions of dollars.
The suit is a "shareholder derivative" suit, meaning it was filed by a
shareholder on the company's behalf. Among other things, the lawsuit seeks
court-ordered changes in BP's corporate governance, and an order that the
executives pay monetary damages.
A BP spokesman declined comment Monday.
The lawsuit is among a flurry of lawsuits filed by rig workers or their
families and by fishermen and business owners claiming economic damage.
Firpo's lawsuit says safety issues have been ignored even after a similar
lawsuit filed in 2006 was settled out of court. Corporate executives made
"purely cosmetic changes at the corporate level" after the settlement, the suit
says.
"The BP Defendants have a long history of ignoring crucial safety issues
related to the operation of offshore submersible rigs such as the Deepwater
Horizon rig, including problems with the crucial blowout preventer devices that
so spectacularly failed during this disaster," the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also names three other corporations it says are liable to BP as a
result of the disaster: The rig's owner-operator Transocean Ltd.; Cameron
International Corp., which manufactured the blowout preventer; and Halliburton
Energy Services Inc., which had been working to cap the well with cement prior
to the explosion.
In an e-mail, Haliburton spokeswoman Teresa Wong said "it is premature and
irresponsible to speculate on any specific causal issues" and declined further
comment, citing pending investigations and litigation. Transocean declined
immediate comment and a Cameron spokesman said the company does not comment on
litigation.