Playing cards Towards Humanity is the newest entity to tackle Elon Musk in court docket. The irreverent celebration recreation firm filed a $15 million lawsuit towards SpaceX for trespassing on property it owns in Texas, which occurs to sit down close to SpaceX services.
In line with filed in a federal court docket in Texas, Musk’s rocket firm started utilizing its land with out permission for the final six months. SpaceX took what was beforehand a “pristine” plot of land “and completely fucked that land with gravel, tractors, and space garbage,” CAH wrote in a .
As you may count on from the cardboard recreation firm recognized for its raunchy humorousness and headline-grabbing stunts, there’s an amusing backstory to the way it grew to become neighbors with SpaceX in Texas within the first place. , the corporate purchased land alongside the US-Mexico border as a part of a crowdfunded effort to protest then President Donald Trump’s plan to construct a border wall. Since then, the corporate writes, it has maintained the land with common mowing, fencing and “no trespassing” indicators.
SpaceX later bought adjoining land and, earlier this 12 months, allegedly started utilizing CAH’s land amid some form of development challenge. From the lawsuit (emphasis theirs):
The location was cleared of vegetation, and the soil was compacted with gravel or different substance to permit SpaceX and its contractors to run and park its automobiles all around the Property. Turbines have been introduced in to run tools and lights whereas work was being carried out earlier than and after daylight. An unlimited mound of gravel was unloaded onto the Property; the gravel is being saved and used for the development of buildings by SpaceX’s contractors alongside the street. Giant items of development tools and quite a few construction-related automobiles are utilized and saved on the Property repeatedly. And, after all, employees are current performing development work and staging supplies and automobiles for work to be carried out on different tracts. In brief, SpaceX has handled the Property as its personal for a minimum of six (6) months with out regard for CAH’s property rights nor the security of anybody getting into what has develop into a worksite that’s presumably ruled by OSHA security necessities.
SpaceX, in line with the submitting, “never asked for permission” to make use of the land and “and hasnever reached out to CAH to explain or apologize for the damage.” The rocket firm did, nonetheless, give “a 12-hour ultimatum to accept a lowball offer for less than half our land’s value,” in line with an announcement posted on-line. A spokesperson for CAH stated the land in query is “about an acre” in dimension.
In response to the ultimatum, CAH filed a $15 million lawsuit towards SpaceX for trespassing and damaging its property. The sport firm, which initially was funded by way of a Kickstarter marketing campaign, says that if it’s profitable in court docket it can share the proceeds with the 150,000 followers who helped initially buy the land in 2017. It created the place subscribers can sign-up for an opportunity to rise up to $150 of the potential $15 million payout ought to their lawsuit succeed. (A disclaimer notes that “Elon Musk has way more money and lawyers than Cards Against Humanity, and while CAH will try its hardest to get me $100, they will probably only be able to get me like $2 or most likely nothing.)
SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But CAH isn’t the only Texas landowner that’s raised questions about the company’s tactics. SpaceX has been aggressively growing its footprint in Southern Texas in recent years. The expansion, which has resulted in many locals selling their land to SpaceX, has rankled some longtime residents, according to an investigation Reuters.
CAH says that Musk’s past behavior makes SpaceX’s actions “particularly offensive” to the company known for taking a stance on social issues.
“The 2017 holiday campaign that resulted in the purchase of the Property was based upon CAH undertaking efforts to fight against ‘injustice, lies, [and] racism,” it states. “Thus, it is particularly offensive that these egregious acts against the Property have been committed by the company run by Elon Musk. As is widely known, Musk has been accused of tolerating racism and sexism at Tesla and of amplifying the antisemitic ‘Great Replacement Theory.’ Allowing Musk’s company to abuse the Property that CAH’s supporters contributed money to purchase for the sole purpose of stopping such behavior is totally contrary to both the reason for the contribution and the tenets on which CAH is based.”
