One judge ordered hundreds of them to sue on their own - the higher bench said no
California's appeals court says hundreds of Tesla workers can keep their racial bias claims joined, rather than filed one by one.
For years, hundreds of former Tesla workers have said they faced racial harassment and discrimination on the production floor of the company's California factory. On June 30, 2026, a state appeals court decided how those claims can move forward - and the outcome is one that employers running large, similar workforces may want to note.
The Court of Appeal held that a trial court erred when it ordered the five lawsuits broken up. That order dismissed all but the first-named plaintiff in each complaint and told the other 435 workers to refile on their own. The workers - 440 former members of a broader class action against Tesla that was later decertified - had grouped themselves into five complaints, each joining between 54 and 98 people. All alleged racial discrimination and harassment at a single Tesla factory.
The sticking point was a rule called joinder. In plain terms, joinder lets several plaintiffs sue in one case. Misjoinder is a ruling that they do not belong together. The trial court found "inappropriate joinder of plaintiffs" and told everyone except the first name on each complaint to drop out and refile alone.
The appeals court saw it differently. California lets plaintiffs sue together when their claims come from the "same transaction, occurrence, or...
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