Twitter hired experts for case against Musk—now Musk won’t pay them, lawsuit says

Lawsuits pile up at Twitter —

Company says it wasn’t paid for work on lawsuit that forced Musk to complete merger.

Jon Brodkin – Jan 20, 2023 4:58pm UTC

Twitter was sued yesterday by a consulting firm that says it was never paid for work it did on the lawsuit that forced Elon Musk to complete his purchase of the company.

Charles River Associates (CRA) says it was hired by Twitter in August 2022, shortly after Twitter sued Musk over his refusal to complete their $44 billion merger agreement. Musk finally completed the purchase in late October after it became clear that he was likely to lose in court.

From August 15 to October 27, “CRA provided all requested expert consulting work and services to Twitter and its legal counsel in connection with the Musk Litigation and pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Contract,” according to the lawsuit filed yesterday in Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston, Massachusetts. The lawsuit said that “Twitter has breached the Contract by failing to pay all of the CRA Invoices,” which added up to $2.19 million.

CRA is seeking the full amount owed on the invoices and double or treble damages due to Twitter’s “deceptive, intentional breach of the consulting agreement, plus interest, costs, and legal fees.” CRA’s lawsuit is one of several alleging that the Musk-owned Twitter has refused to pay bills for services provided before he bought the company.

Software vendor Imply Data previously alleged that Twitter failed to pay a $1,092,000 invoice and apparently intends to stiff Imply on another $7 million worth of payments on a contract that expires in late 2024. Additional breach-of-contract lawsuits allege that Twitter failed to pay $136,000 in rent at a San Francisco office tower and $197,725 for private jet services.

Twitter didn’t respond to payment requests, lawsuit says

The new lawsuit said that “CRA and its Senior Consultant, Professor Mark Zmijewski, were retained by Twitter to provide economic consulting services related to Professor Zmijewski’s anticipated expert rebuttal report and expert rebuttal testimony, which were to be in rebuttal of the expert report and testimony of one of the experts for the Musk parties, Yvette Austin Smith.”

CRA’s work included “research and analysis underlying the expert opinions to be included in the expert rebuttal report,” preparation of drafts of the report, “and other expert consulting and litigation support at the direction of Twitter’s legal counsel,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit describes CRA’s attempts to get paid for its work after Musk reluctantly completed his purchase of Twitter instead of continuing to fight the lawsuit. CRA said it received no response to a series of messages it sent about the unpaid invoices during the month after Musk’s purchase.

Twitter also hasn’t followed the agreed-upon process for objecting to the invoices, CRA said. “Twitter agreed pursuant to the terms of the Contract that any ‘objection with respect to CRA’s invoices must be made by the client in writing within five (5) business days following receipt of the invoice to which objection is made,'” the lawsuit said. “Twitter has never provided any objection to CRA with regard to the CRA Invoices.”