Tesla Gets Engineer’s Whole Defamation Case Sent to Arbitration

A former top Tesla Inc. engineer must arbitrate all aspects of her defamation claims against the company over its statements in Huffington Post reports because they all relate to her employment, the Ninth Circuit said Monday.

The trial court incorrectly assessed two allegedly defamatory statements as unrelated to Cristina Balan’s employment and thus outside the scope of the arbitration clause in her contract with Tesla, the appeals court said in an unpublished per curiam opinion.

Balan worked on car batteries during her time at Tesla, from 2010 to 2014, according to her complaint in the U.S. District Court for the ...