Lawsuit Alleges Elon Musk Vowed Twitter Would Only Pay Rent "Over His Dead Body" A recent lawsuit claims that Elon Musk, during a 4 a.m. conversation, told an investor that Twitter would only pay rent for its offices if it happened "over his dead body."
Six former employees of Twitter have filed a lawsuit against Musk and X. Corp, the holding company of Twitter, in the District Court of Delaware on Tuesday.
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of violating 14 counts, including fraud, labor-rights laws, and breach of contract, as it alleges that Twitter failed to pay severance to its staff.
In recent months, Twitter has faced lawsuits from its landlords in London, New York City, and San Francisco for alleged non-payment of rent. The new lawsuit provides further details on internal discussions regarding this matter.
According to the lawsuit, plaintiff Joseph Killian, who worked at Twitter for 12 years and was responsible for office design, was aware that Musk had made the decision last December to cease paying rent.
Lawsuit Claims Elon Musk Declared Twitter Would Pay Rent "Over His Dead Body" via Venture Capitalist Message
According to the lawsuit, venture capitalist Pablo Mendoza, who had invested with Elon Musk and was involved in realizing Musk's Twitter 2.0 vision, relayed a message to Joseph Killian, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Killian attempted to persuade Musk, through Mendoza, about the potential consequences of not paying any rent, emphasizing that renegotiating the terms of Twitter's leases would likely fail.
In response, the lawsuit alleges that Mendoza stated, "Elon told me he would only pay rent over his dead body." The alleged conversation took place at 4 a.m. on the same day. Elon Musk has previously mentioned sleeping around six hours per night and has admitted to regretting late-night tweets.
The lawsuit also mentions that Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, expressed the opinion that it was unreasonable for Twitter's landlords to expect rent payment, referring to San Francisco as a "shithole." Twitter's headquarters are located near the city's Tenderloin district.
Musk recently tweeted that downtown San Francisco resembled a "derelict zombie apocalypse" but stated in an interview with CNBC that his employees could not work from home.
Insider reached out to Twitter for comment, but received an automated response that did not address the inquiry.
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