A whistleblower at Tesla, who fought Elon Musk and his company for years in court, has won the latest round of a long-running legal battle, according to the BBC.
Romanian-born engineer Cristina Bălan lost her job in 2014 after raising a safety concern about a design defect that could affect Tesla vehicle braking. Her defamation claim against the company seemed over when a judge upheld an arbitration ruling in Tesla’s favor — but a panel of California appellate judges later overturned that decision. Bălan told BBC News she now wants to face Elon Musk and Tesla in court. Tesla has not responded to a request for comment.
Bălan believes the case may now return to square one, allowing new legal proceedings to begin. “We hope to start a new trial and have the chance to face Elon Musk in front of a jury and a judge,” she said.
Once a key figure at Tesla — with her initials engraved on batteries inside Model S vehicles — Bălan previously told BBC News that she is determined to clear her name for her son’s sake. She also revealed that she is in remission from stage 3B breast cancer and fears she may not live to see the case’s conclusion.
She reported that she became concerned about Tesla floor mats curling under the pedals, posing a safety risk. According to her, her concerns were dismissed by management, tensions escalated, and she eventually lost her job. She later won a wrongful termination suit, but it marked the beginning of a long legal journey.
Bălan was publicly accused by Tesla of using company resources for a “secret project” — allegations akin to embezzlement under U.S. law. She consistently denied the claims and filed a defamation suit in 2019. “I want to clear my name,” she said last year. “I wish Elon Musk had the decency to apologize.”
A court later ruled that her case must go to arbitration, per her Tesla employment contract. The arbitrator ruled in favor of Tesla and Musk, stating too much time had passed since the alleged defamatory statements. Tesla then took the case to a California district court to confirm the ruling.
However, Bălan appealed, and U.S. Court of Appeals judges sided with her — deciding the California court lacked jurisdiction. They ordered the district court to vacate the arbitration confirmation and dismiss the case due to lack of jurisdiction.
Who is Cristina Bălan?
Cristina Bălan, 35, is of Romanian origin. Before working at Tesla, she was an engineer at Boeing for three years, at Meridian Lightweight Technologies for two years, and at Honeywell Process Solutions for 1 year and 7 months, according to Ziarul Financiar. She worked at Tesla in California for four years (2010–2014) as a design engineer, and in 2015 she founded her own company, Tesseract Motors.
At Tesla, she worked on interior components and battery modules for various car models, including door interiors for the Porsche Cayenne, battery modules for the Mercedes-Benz B-Class and Toyota Rav4 EV, and the central console of the Audi R8. She graduated from Transilvania University of Brașov in 2002.