BREAKING: Martin Eberhard sues Elon Musk and Tesla for libel, slander and breach of contract
by Sam Abuelsamid on Jun 11th 2009 at 9:01AM 
The only thing surprising about Martin Eberhard's latest move is that it took so long to happen. Eberhard was co-founder of Tesla Motors along with Mark Tarpenning, and he was ousted from the company in November 2007 by then-chairman Elon Musk. Musk has never been one to hide his feelings about other people (or much of anything) – and comments he has made about Eberhard and his role in the company have clearly not gone over well.
To nobody's surprise, Eberhard has filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court in San Mateo against Musk and Tesla Motors. In the suit, Eberhard accuses Musk of slander and libel, along with breaching the contracts that he and the company had with Eberhard. At 146 pages, we haven't yet had time to digest the entire complaint (though we do find it interesting that our coverage is mentioned in the lawsuit), but we have a sneaking suspicion this one is going to get ugly. You can read the filing in PDF form by clicking here.
ABG reached out to Tesla for comment, and spokeswoman Rachel Konrad provided the following statement:
"This lawsuit is a fictionalized, inaccurate account of Tesla's early years -- it's twisted and wrong, and we welcome the opportunity to set the record straight. Incidentally, Tesla will also be filing counterclaims and in the process present an accurate account of the company's history."More as it happens...
[Source: San Mateo California Superior Court]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Smegley 9:20AM (6/11/2009)
so what now does the country have to bail out this guy too?
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Henry 9:23AM (6/11/2009)
I heard he was willing to drop the lawsuit if Elon Musk legally changes his last name to "Mr. Douche Bag".
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DeftonesFan867 9:26AM (6/11/2009)
WINRAR!!!1!!!
Tony 9:35AM (6/11/2009)
Good way to ruin a potentially great company. Greed rears it's ugly head again.
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Robert 10:00AM (6/11/2009)
I think it was greed rearing it's ugly head when Musk ousted Eberhard. This is just Eberhard getting what he deserves. Tesla may have not made it this far without Musk's money, but there would be no Tesla without Eberhard.
Alex 10:36AM (6/11/2009)
It would be a shame if this ends up killing Tesla.
tankd0g 5:57PM (6/11/2009)
The company was ruined 2 years ago.
FanboyOfTheTruth 10:20AM (6/11/2009)
The only reason Eberhard waited this long was because Eberhard would not have gotten much from the then cash-strapped Tesla even if he won. Now, howevever, with the cash infusion from Daimler, Eberhard will be able to maximize the loot from the lawsuit.
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Toy Yoda 10:32AM (6/11/2009)
And you wonder why MB partnered with Tesla. I think it would have been better had MB partnered with Fisker somehow. Also, imagine how far Tesla would be had they not had so much internal bickering. From a personnel viewpoint, it must not be fun working at Tesla.
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geo.stewart 10:41AM (6/11/2009)
Revisionist history coming up
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Jsams4131 11:34AM (6/11/2009)
I was thinking the same thing when I started remembering reading the recent tesla articles and their talks with Daimler. I just scanned through the official complaint and there are a whole bunch of letters, and articles ..definately if you are interested its worth the read.
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Jsams4131 11:35AM (6/11/2009)
the above was supposed to be under @fanboyoftruth's post
JZeke 11:37AM (6/11/2009)
I just read the 3 part ABG article, and from what I can gather Eberhard never really "got" the populist part of car making. Call Elon what you will, but he clearly gets what people will consider before they yay or nay the Tesla Roadster.
In this case, it was the importance of performance stats to stat-obsessed gearheads with means. 0-60 faster than an Elise or slower than an Elise seems like nothing, but to a wealthy guy with 100k to burn it can make the world of difference.
Eberhard probably should've done his research on transmission makers before committing so heavily in Magna. I'm guessing he could've gotten a lot farther in the company if he took initiative to consider all the possibilities - not just respond to Elon's "edicts".
Really, he got burned by that experience to Magna, since he apparently pushed them so far.
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Salman Anjum 12:17PM (6/11/2009)
I hope we rid the world of cheap Musks. cant stand the idiot.
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Erik 1:30PM (6/11/2009)
I completely agree. I think a LOT of people do.
Level 12:38PM (6/11/2009)
The biggest slap on the face is that the majority of the people think Musk is the guy that envision Tesla when he wasn't he was just the guy with the money willing to invest to make more money...
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Dustin 1:09PM (6/11/2009)
It's nice that Tesla is willing to give us "an accurate account of the company's history." Oh wait, Eberhard IS the company's history. Have fun with that.
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EB 9:36AM (6/12/2009)
Agreed
ken 3:38PM (6/11/2009)
I had the pleasure of witnessing martin eberhard speak about tesla at Stanford University when he was still with the company. What struck me was his enthusiasm for taking the next steps to create positive change in how we view the automobile, as well as his genuine desire to see the company succeed. When I heard he got pushed out of the company it was disheartening, especially after seeing who replaced him. I hope something good comes out of this for Eberhard. He was Tesla before captain dbag took the helm.
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tankd0g 5:56PM (6/11/2009)
FINALLY. I was starting to this Musk had these guy's family locked in his basement or something.
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