Despite the name of the game they created, the makers of Cards Against Humanity actually have quite a strong love for humanity itself. This was put on display in 2017 when they bought a chunk of land on the border between the United States and Mexico. Through a crowdfunding effort, the game developing and publishing company purposely bought a piece of border territory solely so that the then presidential administration of Donald Trump couldn’t build a border wall on it.
As it turns out, Trump was the least of their worries. Elon Musk on the other hand….let’s just say it’s gotten to the point that they’re suing him for damage and trespassing.
As part of the aforementioned crowd funding effort, Cards Against Humanity LLC started to purchase land, over 150,000 people chipped in $15 a piece to effectively prevent the land from being used to construct a border wall. According to Cards Against Humanity, the wall Trump was attempting to build was “very stupid” and they go on to say some other things about the former president and even more things about Elon Musk. Why Musk? Well, the game company is accusing Musk’s SpaceX company of trespassing onto the land with heavy machinery, various garbage, and construction materials.
If true, it’s a pretty clear case of trespassing. Cards Against Humanity alleges that they called SpaceX out on their trespassing and dumping and were offered a small sum of money that would have been worth less than half of what the land’s true value was. CAH also posted pictures of the area that they said were from before and after Musk’s company allegedly went into the area.
Where the lawsuit continues forward though is in alleging that this violation goes beyond just a mere clean-up effort but that they should be compensated to the tune of $15 million. The petitioners for the lawsuit feel that the actions of SpaceX have affected the reputation of Cards Against Humanity in that they were trusted to keep the land pristine but were unable to thanks to the trespassing and dumping. So, in order to make things right, CAH argues that the $15 million is necessary to pay each one of the original crowd funding backers, $100 a piece.
Assuming all the details that Cards Against Humanity provided are true, then the trespassing and dumping elements of the lawsuit seem pretty clear cut; you can’t just go onto privately owned land and use it as a construction or dumping zone, especially if it’s marked as private property and no trespassing. The other element about reputational damage may be a bit more of a stretch. One could argue that this isn’t harming the reputation of Cards Against Humanity so much as it would be making SpaceX look bad. It’s an interest case that could ultimately have a nice outcome for the original backers if it ever comes to a decision in our lifetimes.
