NY pension fund has several options for BP suit

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's pension fund is analyzing its options about how to sue BP to recoup oil spill-caused investment losses in the wake of a Supreme Court decision on jurisdiction.

For the moment, "Nothing has changed our direction," Robert Whalen, a spokesman for Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said by telephone on Wednesday.

New York's $132.6 billion Common Retirement Fund still plans to file a petition by July 20 to become the lead plaintiff in a Louisiana federal court.

But "We are mindful that at some point we may need to change direction," Whalen said.

New York's options include filing the lawsuit in state court under the Martin Act, the state securities law, or perhaps in Britain, because most of the shares the fund bought traded on London's exchange.

These options opened up after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 ruled that foreign investors who bought shares of National Australia Bank Ltd on an overseas exchange cannot sue in a New York court over large write-downs related to the bank's onetime U.S. mortgage unit.

New York's Common Retirement Fund has a long history of serving as the lead plaintiff in shareholder lawsuits.

The fund, one of the nation's biggest, owned more than 19 million shares when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April.

DiNapoli, the pension fund's sole trustee, on June 23 said "BP misled investors about its safety procedures and its ability to respond to events like the ongoing oil spill and we're going to hold it accountable."

Some of the cases seeking damages from BP that have been filed so far are: Ludlow v. BP, No. 6:10-cv-00818 and Johnson Investment Counsel v. BP, No 6:10-cv-00903 in Louisiana's Western District, Greenfield v. BP, No. 2:10-cv-01683 in Louisiana's Eastern District, and Yuen v. BP, No. 2:10-cv-040164, in California's Central District.