Tesla drops lawsuit against company short-seller after court asks to turn over evidence

Tesla pulled out a lawsuit against a well-known short-seller and critic of the company. In the lawsuit filed last Friday, Tesla claims the short-seller struck a worker with his automobile. The claim was filed in Alameda County Superior Court.

The company’s decision to drop the case follows the court’s request to turn over evidence to prove its claims.

The automotive company says it has recorded video and audio evidence to prove the claims. But, Tesla wrote a letter to the court saying their corporate lawyers did not agree with the judge’s order to provide evidence.

Lawyers defending the company argued that turning over such evidence would expose information that was “never intended for public consumption.” According to Tesla’s legal team, the employees involved in the incident have been receiving “unwanted publicity and online harassment” after the complaint was made.

Tesla declines to provide further comments according to The Verge who first reported the news.

Randeep Hothi, the defendant of the case, was identified by Tesla when the company asked for a temporary restraining order against him back in April. This followed Hothi’s photo Tweets showing a company model 3 car allegedly breaking local speeding limits. The company said in court that Hothi “stalked, harassed, and endangered” the employees and that he allegedly “pursued these employees on the public highway for about 35 minutes, variously driving ahead of, beside, and behind them, and swerving dangerously close to the vehicle.”

Tesla also claims that Hothi was caught trespassing at their Fremont, California factory multiple times prior to the April run-in.

Christian Woods
Christian Woods
Christian is a morning reporter and technology columnist for Best in Australia. Christian has worked in the media since 2000, in a range of locations. He joined Best in Australia in 2018, and began working in Melbourne in 2019.
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