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Tesla issues response to slander and libel lawsuit

 
2 1,210 views Jun 21, 2009

2008 tesla roadster motorauthority 001

The latest case will be heard in the Californian supreme court in about a month’s time

The latest case will be heard in the Californian supreme court in about a month’s time

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Earlier this month we reported on a case where the original founder and designer of the famed Tesla Roadster filed a lawsuit against current Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, claiming a number of actions that could be potentially damaging to both Musk and the company. The suit, which covers libel, slander and breach of contract, has been brought by Tesla founder Martin Eberhard, who is claiming that Musk systematically set out to oust him and gain control of the company when he first became an investor.

In response, Tesla has revealed to Edmunds that the lawsuit is "twisted and wrong" and "will not have any effect on Tesla's considerable momentum or business strategy going forward." The information was revealed by Tesla spokesperson Rachel Konrad, who explained that “Tesla's full board of directors unanimously fired Martin shortly after discovering that the cost of the car was more than twice what Martin portrayed it to be at the time."


Eberhard originally left Tesla in late 2007 with a severance agreement of $100,000 and 250,000 shares in the company. However, he says the severance payments stopped after he posted an article on his personal blog that was critical of Tesla.

Whichever party is the wronged one in this exchange remains to be seen, but now we know what Tesla thinks of the claim and a bit more of its side of the story. Tesla is now planning to file its own counterclaim to set the story of the company's history right.
Tesla Roadster

HI-RES GALLERY: 2008 tesla roadster motorauthority 001




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Comments (2)

  1. ma_Aiman avatar Aiman Posted: 6/21/2009 10:02pm PDT

    Is the steering wheel offset a bit to the right in this car? Anyone tested it?
     
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  2. By  manganese Posted: 12/29/2009 1:12am PST

    I wonder how often this comes up – the “official” history of a company is very often romanticized, and it’s hard to know what’s really happened behind closed doors without having inside knowledge. It’ll be really interesting to see how this turns out.
     
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