WASHINGTON — Twitter violated contracts by not paying millions of dollars in bonuses that the social media company, now called X Corp, promised its employees, a federal judge ruled Friday.
Mark Schobinger, who was senior director of compensation at Twitter before leaving Elon Musk's company in May, File a lawsuit against Twitter In June, claiming breach of contract.
Schöbinger's lawsuit alleged that before and after billionaire Musk bought Twitter last year, it promised employees 50% of targeted bonuses for 2022 but never made those payments.
In rejecting Twitter's motion to dismiss the case, US District Judge Vince Chhabria said to rule That Schobinger reasonably stated the breach of contract claim under California law was covered by the bonus plan.
“Once Schobinger did what Twitter asked, Twitter’s offer to pay him a reward in return became a binding contract under California law. By refusing to pay Schobinger the promised reward, Twitter violated that contract,” the judge wrote.
X no longer has a media relations office. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its X account outside of business hours.
Twitter's lawyers argued that the company only made an oral promise that was not a contract, and that Texas law should govern the case, according to Courthouse News, which was first to report the ruling. The judge ruled that California law governs the case and that “Twitter's arguments to the contrary all fail.”
X has been multiplied by Many lawsuits By former employees and executives since Musk bought the company and fired more than half of its workforce.
The lawsuits make a host of allegations, including that X discriminated against older employees, women and workers with disabilities, and failed to provide advance notice of mass layoffs. The company denies any wrongdoing.
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