Tesla Motors' lawsuit update: Martin Eberhard, Elon Musk have a court date tomorrow
The legal battle between Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and ex-CEO Martin Eberhard continues tomorrow in San Mateo County Superior Court when Musk and Tesla's lawyers will ask a judge to toss out Eberhard's original lawsuit. Earlier this year, Eberhard filed a lawsuit that alleges that Musk, among other things, "committed a series of actions that not only resulted in the delay of the release of the Roadster to the consumer market, but also compromised Tesla Motors' financial health." Eberhard is also asking that Musk stop referring to himself as a founder of Tesla Motors (read more on the lawsuit here and here).
The AP spoke to legal experts about the case who said that Eberhard's request on the founder issue could be seen as a "prior restraint" request "that is only granted by judges in extremely rare instances such as when publication threatens national security." It could backfire. Musk told the AP that his $75 million investment in Tesla Motors and his "two years of 100-hour workweeks" to rebuild Tesla means he can claim to be a founder of the company. Eberhard would not comment before tomorrow's court date.
[Source: AP]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Yanquetino 11:30AM (7/28/2009)
Sebastian: This reminds me, hasn't Rachel Konrad provided you a scan of that physics diploma yet? We've been waiting to see it for weeks now.
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Lad 11:40PM (7/28/2009)
Big Deal: The first Continuance takes place! This will surely take years.
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flash 7:08PM (7/30/2009)
There have been all kinds of responses from Tesla that highlight excactly what Eberhard's problem with Tesla is -- half-truths. Tesla did provide evidence that Musk has two degrees from Penn -- neither of which is a BS in Physics. Eberhard did not claim that Musk did not have degrees -- he said that Musk's claims to a degree in physics were false. Musk provided documentation that he was "accepted" at Stanford but never "enrolled" -- Eberhard says that Musk's claim that he "dropped out" of Harvard are false -- how do you drop out if you never enrolled? These may seem pucky and subtle, but Eberhard includes them in his lawsuit for a reason -- they show a pattern. Tesla was incorporated in 2003 by Tarpenning and Eberhard. The company and been effectively "founded." In April of 2004 Musk became involved -- he invested a lot of money with a company that had a plan, rough prototype, possible agreement with Lotus, engineering work done -- but no money. Musk invested money in an existing on-going enterprise -- a company that had been "founded" the previous year. Musk may indeed be the man that took the company from an idea (e.g. the vision of it's founders) to a "real company" with product ... he has a lot to be proud of. But just like two degrees -- when neither says "BS in Physics" and just like you can't drop out of something you were never enrolled in, you can't be a founder of something you became involved in that was already founded the previous year.
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