Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber who resigned in June after a string of embarrassing scandals, won’t face a lawsuit brought by venture capital firm Benchmark. Instead, a Delaware judge has sent it arbitration, giving Kalanick a victory in a high-profile case that has pit one of Uber’s earliest shareholders against the ride-hailing company’s founder.
Samuel Glasscock, a judge in Delaware’s Court of Chancery, ruled Wednesday that the lawsuit filed by Benchmark would be sent to arbitration. However, Glasscock did not dismiss the case altogether. A third-party meditator will determine whether the case should be handled in arbitration or moved back to court, the New York Times has reported.
A Benchmark Capital spokesperson told Coins2Day in an email that the “case is fundamentally a question of integrity and values and the facts will fully support Benchmark’s position.” “We look forward to presenting the facts as the case proceeds,” the spokesperson said.
Benchmark filed a lawsuit against Kalanick on August 10, alleging fraud and requesting that the court remove him from Uber’s board. Benchmark, which owns a 13% stake in Uber, has accused Kalanick of misleading investors to stack the board with allies.
Earlier this month, Kalanick’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the case or send it to arbitration, noting in the brief that letting the lawsuit play out in court “would expose the company to significant and unnecessary harm for no reason other than Benchmark’s desire to use this forum to publicly slander Mr. Kalanick with its fabricated allegations.”
Updated at 8 p.m. ET with comment from Benchmark Capital