The popular, raunchy party game “Cards Against Humanity” is suing billionaire Elon Musk for $15 million, claiming that his company, SpaceX, illegally occupied and vandalized his property on the Texas-Mexico border.
The lawsuit, filed in a Texas court on Thursday, alleges that vegetation was removed from a “pristine” piece of land the board game company bought through crowdfunding in 2017, turning it into a waste disposal site for the adjacent SpaceX Starbase.
“Elon Musk's SpaceX was building a space facility nearby and, without asking any questions, he decided to smash his own onto our beautiful land. After we caught up with him, SpaceX gave us a 12-hour ultimatum to accept their offer, less than half the price of the land,” Cards Against Humanity said. He made the remarks in a letter to fans online..
“We said, 'Fuck you, Elon Musk. We'll see you in court,'” the company added.
“With great vengeance and great anger,” they signed the letter, adding in a postscript: “We will also accept Twitter.com as compensation,” a dig at Musk's $44 billion purchase of the social media site.
The Washington Post has reached out to SpaceX for comment.
According to the lawsuit, in 2017, during President Donald Trump's term in office, the company, with financial backing from its supporters, began a campaign to acquire land along the Texas-Mexico border “to make it as slow and expensive as possible” for Trump to complete his infamous border wall.
About 150,000 fans donated $1 to the campaign, which led to the purchase of a vacant lot in Cameron County near Brownsville. At the time of purchase, the land was “untouched by development and had not been subject to any influence that would affect its natural state.” In the lawsuit.
But over the past six months, SpaceX, which purchased nearby land, has allegedly ignored “no trespassing” signs posted on Cards Against Humanity's property.
According to the lawsuit, SpaceX and its contractors have been clearing the land and using it as a base for major construction projects in the area, including rocket launches.
“SpaceX's misuse of this land has not only destroyed its natural state, but has also damaged CAH's relationship with its ratepayer supporters, causing further harm to CAH,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit was first reported by Reuters, which also ran a story about the widening lawsuit. Complaints from other neighbors Regarding the sudden development around Starbase, local residents have previously accused Musk of “ruining” the area.
The submission includes before and after photos of the Cards Against Humanity land.
The photo, taken recently, shows a grassy landscape teeming with cacti, juxtaposed with construction equipment and other building materials resting on a pile of gravel.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has accused SpaceX of violating environmental regulations at the StarBase site by repeatedly discharging pollutants into or near Texas waters. He made the statement after the investigation last month..
