BP’s stock price fell substantially after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and employees who owned BP stock claimed that the loss in value of their company stock holdings was attributable to fiduciary violations by the plan’s fiduciaries. 

1. What was the legal issue in this case? What did the court decide? 

2. What does it mean to say that BP had a “fiduciary duty” to the participants in its employee stock ownership plan? In which ways do the plaintiffs claim that BP breached its fiduciary duty to them? 

3. Why does the appeals court rule against the plaintiffs?