Earlier this week shareholders rejected the bloated Citibank pay, but the vote was only a suggestion. Citigroup management chose to ignore the vote so now shareholders are taking their case to court. Reuters:

The complaint filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court accuses directors of breaching their fiduciary duties by awarding more than $54 million of compensation in 2011 to the executives, including $15 million to Pandit, though the bank’s performance did not necessarily justify it. At Citigroup’s annual meeting on Tuesday, about 55 percent of shareholders participating in an advisory vote rejected Pandit’s pay package. That marked the first time that investors had rejected a compensation plan at a major U.S. bank. That vote “has cast doubt on the board’s decision-making process, as well as the accuracy and truthfulness of its public statements,” the complaint said. “Absent this (lawsuit), the majority will of the company’s stockholders shall be rendered meaningless.”

Was there really any doubt that the Citi management decision-making was already a disaster?