Judge Allows Tesla Founder's Lawsuit Against CEO Musk To Proceed

Judge Allows Tesla Founder's Lawsuit Against CEO Musk To Proceed

By Scott Doggett July 29, 2009

A judge is allowing to proceed a lawsuit by a founder of Tesla Motors that accuses the electric-carmaker and its chief executive of libel, slander and several other allegations.
Martin Eberhard claims that CEO Elon Musk unfairly blamed him for Tesla's well-documented financial woes in interviews with the media and in postings on the company's blogs.

Eberhard also is suing to recover a $100,000 severance package the company took away from him for allegedly violating a non-disparagement agreement.

Yosef Peretz, who represents Eberhard against Tesla and Musk, says a San Mateo County Superior Court judge issued a written tentative ruling Tuesday refusing to toss out the lawsuit. The ruling says it appears Eberhard's lawsuit will prevail.

No trial date has been set.

Tesla responded to the decision with some equally adept backspin, saying in a statement "we are pleased that the judge struck down Eberhard's claim asking to be 'declared' one of only two founders of the company.

"We have long believed in the concept of a founding team, which includes Elon Musk as well as JB Straubel and other people who played indispensable and positive roles in Tesla's early history."

As for asking the judge to take the extraordinary step of dismissing the lawsuit, Tesla said "we still believe is an unfair personal attack and PR stunt that should not burden the court system. The judge acknowledged that it wasn't 'in his purview' to rule on the merits of the case at this very early stage, so we look forward to proving the facts in court in the upcoming months."

A spokeswoman for Tesla said the automaker also looks forward to a ruling on a request that the plaintiff "revise his original lawsuit and delete some of the most ridiculous and demonstrably false statements and innuendos, including implications that Elon may not have received his undergraduate degrees or been accepted to graduate school at Stanford."

About those degrees: Musk did indeed receive two degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and he was indeed accepted into a graduate program at Stanford. He bailed from the program only a couple of days into it.

National Student Clearinghouse, a company that verifies academic degrees, past attendance and the like, verified Musk's claim that he received two degrees from Penn. We have attached them for your viewing pleasure.

We've also attached a letter from Stanford, substantiating Musk's claim that he was admitted into a graduate program at the university. Enjoy!

Scott Doggett:  is an AutoObserver.com Associate Editor.