A San Francisco judge ruled that Don Lemon has met the threshold to continue his lawsuit against Elon Musk‘s X on claims including fraud, misappropriation of name and likeness and breach of implied contract.
The superior court judge, Harold Kahn, tossed out a series of other claims, including negligent misrepresentation, defamation, retaliation and harassment.
Lemon sued Musk, X, Linda Yaccarino and a top X content executive last year, after his partnership on the platform was abruptly ended.
Lemon was to host exclusive content on X as he launched a new show in early 2024, but Musk abruptly canceled the partnership after he did a sometimes contentious sit down interview with the former CNN host. According to the complaint, filed in Superior Court in San Francisco, Musk sent a text to Lemon’s agent with the words, “contract is canceled.”
Lemon’s attorney, Carney Shegerian, said in a statement, “The ruling means Don can hold X and Musk accountable in open court. Musk is subject to the legal process, just like everyone else, and that’s important. There’s no question about Musk’s motives and liability, as documented in his own texts and on X for millions to see.”
An attorney for X did not immediately return a request for comment.
Musk had sought to move the case to federal court in Texas, but that was denied.
The judge’s ruling is not on the merits, but on whether Lemon adequately made claims that can be argued in court. The judge also ruled that Lemon can pursue claims on promissory estoppel and unjust enrichment. He also will allow Lemon to correct a claim of breach of express contract, noting that his lawsuit did not specify whether it was “oral, written or implied.”
According to the lawsuit, Lemon initially met with Yaccarino and Brett Weitz, head of content, talent and brand sales, in December, 2023, where they assured him that he had X’s “full support,” that he would have “full authority” over his work and that the platform would not interfere.
According to the lawsuit, X represented to Lemon that the deal would be for one year, “if he agreed to provide Defendants exclusive rights to specific video content for a 24-hour period before it could be dispersed to other platforms: (1) one piece of long-form video content (that is not breaking news) per week; and (2) ten pieces of short-form video content per month.”
In return, Lemon was to receive $1.5 million, as well as a number of other incentives, including the option to renew two times at the same terms, 60% of the gross revenue from the programmatic advertising generated by the content, and “performance threshold” payments based on followers reached, according to the lawsuit.
Lemon claimed in the lawsuit that he was then “rushed” into agreeing to the partnership deal, and was informed that it would be withdrawn unless he attended the CES conference in January and announced it on X the same day, a move meant to entice advertisers. With that, and his “knowledge of Yaccarino’s reputation as a successful media executive, Lemon agreed to enter into the exclusive partnership deal,” according to the lawsuit.
Lemon interviewed Musk on March 8, but a day later Musk informed Lemon’s agent that the deal was off, and that the “contract is canceled.” Per the lawsuit, Weitz then told Lemon that they were “not going to pay him or follow through with the promises and representations made to him because there was no signed agreement, despite Musk previously representing to Lemon that there would be no need for a formal written agreement or to ‘fill out paperwork.’” Lemon, though, claimed that there was an “express agreement.”
The judge ruled that Lemon did not show that there was “minimal merit” to his defamation claims, writing that some of Musk’s comments were “either non-actionable opinions or not susceptible to a defamatory interpretation.” Those included a comparison that Musk made of Lemon to Veruca Salt, a character in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In denying the harassment claim, the judge ruled that he “fails to present any evidence that X invidiously targeted him because of his protected status.”
Yaccarino announced her departure as CEO of X on Wednesday. Weitz departed the company in April.
