Tesla Defamation Claims Should Stay in Court, Engineer Argues

Tesla Inc. wants a defamation suit filed by a former top company engineer, and sparked by Huffington Post reports, moved to arbitration under her employment contract.

But engineer Cristina Balan told a federal court May 7 she should be able to continue to litigate before it because her claims don’t stem from her job at the electric car maker or her termination.

Balan worked on car batteries during her time at Tesla, from 2010 to 2014, according to the complaint she filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Tesla put her engraved name on its ...