A California judge has reversed the class certification in a 2017 race harassment lawsuit against Tesla, involving 6,000 Black workers at its Fremont factory. The decision means the case cannot proceed as a class action due to insufficient testimony commitments from plaintiffs. Tesla still faces related individual and agency claims.
In a late-Friday order, California Superior Court Judge Peter Borkon ruled that the lawsuit filed by former assembly-line worker Marcus Vaughn cannot remain a class action. The 2017 case alleged that Black employees at Tesla’s Fremont plant faced racially hostile conduct, including slurs, graffiti, and disturbing objects in work areas. Judge Borkon stated he could not confidently apply the experiences of a smaller group of testifying workers to the thousands of potential class members, reversing a 2024 certification by another judge who believed a large trial would be manageable, as reported by Reuters.
The decertification stems from plaintiff attorneys' failure to secure testimony commitments from at least 200 workers ahead of a planned 2026 trial, a threshold the judge deemed necessary for reliable representation. Tesla has maintained that it does not tolerate harassment and has removed employees found responsible for misconduct. Neither Tesla nor the plaintiffs’ legal team provided immediate comments on the ruling.
The case, Vaughn v. Tesla, was filed in Alameda County Superior Court. While this narrows the scope of the suit to individual claims, Tesla continues to face additional litigation. A separate trial on related claims by a California state civil rights agency is set two months after the vacated class trial date. The company also contends with federal race discrimination claims from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and has resolved several individual lawsuits.