Martin Eberhard sues Elon Musk and Tesla Motors

Wow,

just, wow.

I guess lawsuits were inevitable.

Too much money is at stake and too many large egos are involved.

96. In an interview given to thedeal.com, published on or about November 6, 2008, Musk made disparaging and/or defamatory statements about Eberhard, alleging that Eberhard "had misled us about the cost of the car and the time frame of when it could go into production." This statement was republished on Tesla Motors' website at [noparse]http://teslamotorsclub.com/news-articles-events/1833-elon-musk-q-deal.html[/noparse] on or about November 6,2008

Click to expand...

We are Tesla Motors' website? Martin certainly knows the difference!

Martin Eberhard sues Elon Musk and Tesla for libel, slander and breach of contract

link to the court docs
http://openaccess1.sanmateocourt.org/getpdf/pdftemp/200906101523474407/A-0000081554-1.pdf

Wow little shocked Martin has not had his driveline upgraded yet. Page 22.

Just hope this doesn't end up in the destruction of Tesla as a side effect.

M.E.: Go getem tiger!
VFX: Wherever did you get that cool new picture as your icon?

Jalopnik - Tesla Co-Founder Eberhard Sues Elon Musk, Tesla - Martin Eberhard

Tesla’s Founder Sues Tesla’s CEO for Defamation | The Truth About Cars

"Tesla Motors Founder Sues CEO, Unidentified Others for Libel, Slander and More" Green Car Advisor

Tesla’s Founder Sues Tesla’s CEO | Autopia | Wired.com

The only thing surprising about Martin Eberhard's latest move is that it took so long to happen

Click to expand...

My first thought exactly. What took him soo long?

If I'm advising Tesla, without reading the Complaint, I seriously contemplate making a settlement offer to Martin--I'd suspect money is not a main objective in this lawsuit (which is extremely unusual as Martin would only injure his baby because Tesla would likely have to indemnify Elon for all actions made on the Company's behalf). Point is, they let him back in, in some capacity. Put him in charge of Tesla ad-ons (his little charger) or some other division, or whatever... Something to kill this before...

After you read it you'll see, something like that is not to be expected as long as Elon is The Boss.

At this point of the case, it's a matter of throwing stuff against the wall and hoping it will stick. I will wait until they file the Amended Complaint(s) to start seeing what are the actual strong allegations.

They say all news is good news... I just hope that the financial impact isn't as damaging as the Fisker incident.

Rarity said:

At this point of the case, it's a matter of throwing stuff against the wall and hoping it will stick. I will wait until they file the Amended Complaint(s) to start seeing what are the actual strong allegations.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree. There are some issues that may well come back to haunt Eberhard:

1) He tried taking on Musk through a kind of publicity battle using teslafounders.com. That sort of thing could sully his case.

2) He accepted his Roadster even after it was crashed, and did so knowing that he could have received a non-crashed one.

On the other hand, it will be interesting to see what sort of remedy is available, if he wins, for not receiving the second Roadster. And I'll be curious to see if what Musk has said rises to the level of libel.

Random comments and comments on comments.

As to "Why now?" I noted (pg8 line 26) that May 31 2009 was the date Martin was to have medical end and receive stock options. That was 2 weeks ago.

Martin's salary was $200K and he paid full $100K price for his Roadster -half his income.

Martin (and more his wife Carolyn) had been trying to tell the Founder's story for a while now. Another reason to do this lawsuit is to get it in the public record. Any history written on the company will now have this detailed legal (sworn?) record of the company's genesis and much harder to ignore.

PG 14 lists an astonishing amount of articles that TMC has missed. I bet we have more in these pages that could be added.

Bottom of page 28 says talks about Martin trying to find work and will have a hard time raising money for new startups. That would be a good reason to get get this resolved

pg 22 say his car still has old frive train. We have noted and shown in pictures on these TMC pages that Martin's car has been in the MP shop more than would be expected of a new vehicle. And that his car still has all old drivetrain parts is stunning.

Why the stuff about Elon's schooling? Speaks to character?

This does not even seem to be about money, sure, money owed, but not money outside of that, in a previous case, Fisker did not do so bad.

vfx said:

Any history written on the company will now have this detailed legal (sworn?) record of the company's genesis and much harder to ignore.

Click to expand...

No, this isn't a sworn record. It's just a list of allegations, some of which may be true and some of which may not be true. As Eberhard's attorneys learn more, they will modify the list of allegations.

Rarity said:

No, this isn't a sworn record. It's just a list of allegations, some of which may be true and some of which may not be true.

Click to expand...

That's why I asked, not being a lawyer, I don't know by making a legal document it automatically makes it sworn testimony ("true" or not)