The long-running shareholder lawsuit asserts
that Musk, who was SolarCity’s largest
stakeholder and its chairman, and other Tesla
directors breached their fiduciary duties in
bowing to Musk’s wishes and agreeing to buy
the company. In what the plaintiffs call a clear
conflict of interest, SolarCity had been founded
by Musk and two of his cousins, Lyndon and
Peter Rive.
In the Delaware Court of Chancery on Monday,
Baron sought to establish that Musk has sought
to run Tesla without interference and therefore
bears responsibility for any failures. The lawyer
showed a video clip in which Musk said he liked
running his own companies because he doesn’t
want anyone to make him do what he doesn’t
want to do.
As an example of what he characterized as
Musk’s imperious management style, Baron
mentioned that the CEO once declared himself
“Technoking of Tesla” and gave his chief financial
officer the title “master of coin’’ — a reference to
HBO’s “Game of Thrones” — in a filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
The hostility between the billionaire CEO and
the plaintiffs’ lawyer dates to at least 2019 and
a deposition in which Musk insulted Baron
and questioned his professionalism. Baron
played clips from that deposition to try to
portray Musk’s stance toward what he might
regard as criticism.
Pushing back, Musk insisted that “I don’t want to
be the boss of anything.”
“I prefer to spend my time on design and
engineering,” he said.