In 2018, Vernon Unsworth sued Elon Musk for defamation because Musk referred to him as "pedo guy" on Twitter. After Musk offered to help the 12 boys and their soccer coach stuck in the flooded cave in Thailand with a mini-submarine he'd built, Unsworth, a cave expert helping with the rescue insulted Musk's offer on Twitter and called it a PR stunt. He Tweeted that Musk could "stick his submarine where it hurts".
Unsworth was suing Musk for both punitive and compensatory damages totaling $190 million claiming his reputation and feelings had been seriously hurt. Musk defended himself saying he was angry Unsworth called his offer of help insincere and responded with something he would soon take down and apologize for. The suit came down to whether Musk was just insulting Unsworth or actually meant he was a pedophile.
In the end, the jury ruled in favor of Musk, dismissing the case.
This is a good example of a frivolous lawsuit, but, despite that, it is important that our courts stay open to these cases so people who have real cases aren't afraid to sue. I also think that in this case, the system really worked because the case was dismissed.
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I agree, this is definitely a frivolous lawsuit, but it's also a little different from other frivolous lawsuits we've heard about. In this case, both Musk and Unsworth have poor arguments. Yes, Musk used his fame to bring negative attention towards Unsworth however, when Unsworth sued for $190 million, he made the lawsuit extremely frivolous. Unsworth could have sued for much less, and maybe the case would've gone his way. On Musk's side, I don't believe he had a strong argument. He stated that it was purely heat of the moment, but that's no reason to call someone a pedophile, especially when pedophiles are a pretty big problem in the US. Despite this lawsuit being extremely frivolous, I'm glad the case was dismissed because Musk did apologize for his tweet, which doesn't really follow with Unsworth's defamation case.
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