United States Ninth Circuit

Dismissal of a complaint under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 by BP shareholders alleging that the company knowingly, or with deliberate recklessness, made false and misleading statements about the condition of Alaskan pipelines and the company's pipeline maintenance and leak detection practices prior to and in the wake of an oil spill, is: 1) affirmed in part, where plaintiffs did not sufficiently allege scienter with respect to a statement regarding BP's "world class corrosion monitoring and leak detection systems"; but 2) reversed in part, where plaintiffs adequately pled falsity and materiality of the other alleged statements, and under a holistic analysis, the plaintiffs' allegations of scienter combined to create a strong inference of BP's deliberate recklessness as to the false or misleading nature of its other alleged public statements.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/13/2014
• Published 02/13/2014

Judges

• DEARIE

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel