Elon Musk beats $500M severance suit over mass Twitter layoffs

Elon Musk has successfully defended against a $500 million severance lawsuit related to mass layoffs at Twitter after he acquired the company and renamed it X. The lawsuit claimed Musk did not pay proper compensation to thousands of employees he fired. The US district judge ruled that the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act did not cover the claims, leading to a lack of jurisdiction. This legal victory for Musk comes amidst other lawsuits involving his business practices at companies like X, Tesla, and SpaceX, ranging from gender discrimination to retaliatory firings. The plaintiffs alleged that Musk failed to provide appropriate severance to Twitter employees as promised, offering only one month of pay without benefits instead of a more generous package outlined in a 2019 severance plan. The judge mentioned that the post-buyout plan did not involve an ongoing administrative scheme for benefits beyond cash payments. Musk's legal battles also include a contested multibillion-dollar pay package as CEO of Tesla, with a pending decision on legal fees that could reach $7 billion, potentially the largest in US court history.