A lawsuit against X, formerly known as Twitter, has been given the green light by a federal judge. The suit, filed by Mark Schobinger, a former senior director of compensation for Twitter, claims that the company promised but never paid millions of dollars in bonuses to its employees. Schobinger filed the suit on behalf of nearly 2,000 current and former workers, and the amount in dispute is greater than $5 million.
In a three-page opinion, Judge Vince Chhabria ruled that Schobinger had “plausibly stated a breach of contract claim” under California law. The judge maintained that Schobinger was not suing to enforce the discretionary bonus plan, but “to enforce Twitter’s alleged subsequent oral promise that employees would, in fact, receive a percentage of the annual bonus contemplated by the plan if they stayed with the company.”
The company argued that an oral promise was not a contract and that Texas law should apply, but the judge found that California law governed the case. Twitter could not be reached for comment, and Schobinger’s lawyer, Shannon Liss-Riordan, expressed satisfaction with the judge’s decision. Liss-Riordan said, “The court denied Twitter’s motion to dismiss our claim that Twitter failed to pay promised bonuses to continuing employees. We can now go forward with the case, which Twitter was trying to throw out — so it’s not yet a ruling on the merits.”
