Challenge cited California state law that allows plaintiffs and defendants to remove judge they believe can’t grant impartial trial The California j

Elon Musk’s lawyers succeed in challenge to remove OpenAI case judge

submited by

Style Pass

2024-05-09 21:30:06

Challenge cited California state law that allows plaintiffs and defendants to remove judge they believe can’t grant impartial trial

The California judge presiding over Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, has removed himself from the case. Judge Ethan Schulman on Monday sustained a challenge from Musk’s lawyers, which cited a California state law that allows plaintiffs and defendants to remove a judge they believe cannot grant an impartial trial.

The law, known as California Code of Civil Procedure 170.6, does not require the person issuing the challenge to provide any factual basis for their claim that the judge is prejudiced against them. Each side in a case gets one such peremptory challenge, which is granted as long as it is filed with correct language and within a certain time frame.

The judge’s disqualification is the latest turn for the controversial case, which is already based on fairly untested legal arguments and pits two of the most influential men in tech against each other. In March, Musk filed suit against Altman, his former OpenAI co-founder, alleging that the ChatGPT maker had breached a “founding agreement” to work for the betterment of humanity and instead pursued private commercial success.