Vernon Unsworth v. Elon Musk

Defamation

Central District

U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson

Plaintiff's attorneys: Wood, Wilson, Grunberg & Wade, L. Lin Wood, G. Taylor Wilson, Jonathan D. Grunberg, Nicole J. Wade; Chatham Law Group, R. Christopher Chatham; Weisbart Springer Hayes LLP, Matt C. Wood

When Tesla CEO Elon Musk called an expatriate British cave diver a "pedo guy" in the midst of an escalating Twitter feud, he likely didn't know he'd be setting legal precedent.

But after refusing to back down from a defamation lawsuit filed by plaintiff Vernon Unsworth, leading to a first-of-its-kind trial in the Central District of California, he seemed to understand that the verdict in his favor was a statement against litigating social media beefs.

"My faith in humanity is restored," Musk said while emerging from the U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson's courtroom, moments after a jury rejected Unsworth's defamation claims in December.

William C. Price

Musk tossed out the "pedo guy" label in a tweet to his millions of social media followers, in response to an earlier comment made by Unsworth in a televised CNN International interview belittling Musk's contributions to the rescue of a team of young soccer players trapped in a Thailand cave in 2018.

Though initially appearing to back down with an apology in a follow-up tweet, Musk would later double down on the "pedo guy" label, telling a social media follower that he would "bet you a signed dollar it's true" and questioning why Unsworth had not sued if the allegations were false.

Unsworth would sue less than a month later, represented by Atlanta-based litigator L. Lin Wood.

At trial, Wood compared the devastation wrought by Musk's labeling of Unsworth as a pedophile to a nuclear explosion, claiming the label had ostracized him from social circles and negatively impacted the prospective value of his life story.

Alex Spiro, a partner at Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and counsel to Musk, conversely downplayed the significance of "pedo guy," likening it to a harmless schoolyard insult. Spiro said the "pedo guy" label even had a significantly different meaning in Musk's native South Africa, roughly equivalent to calling someone a creepy old man. Vernon Unsworth v. Elon Musk, 18-cv-08048 (C.D. Cal., filed Sept. 28, 2018)

The latter argument clearly resonated with the jury, who rejected Unsworth's request for nearly $200 million in damages after less than a half an hour in deliberations. Asked for comment earlier this month on the verdict, Spiro simply replied "the jury got it right." Wood did not respond to a request for comment.

--Steven Crighton