ATM Shafiqul Khalid v. Elon R. Musk

COURT OF CHANCERY
OF THE
STATE OF DELAWARE
KATHALEEN ST. JUDE MCCORMICK LEONARD L. WILLIAMS JUSTICE CENTER
CHANCELLOR 500 N. KING STREET, SUITE 11400
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE 19801-3734

September 18, 2025

ATM Shafiqul Khalid Catherine A. Gaul
17446 NE 28th Street Randall J. Teti
Redmond, WA 98052 ASHBY & GEDDES
500 Delaware Avenue, 8th Floor
Wilmington, DE 19899

Re: ATM Shafiqul Khalid v. Elon R. Musk et al.,
C.A. No. 2024-0443-KSJM

Dear Mr. Khalid and Counsel:

This letter resolves Plaintiff’s August 8, 2025 motion titled “Rule 59(a) Motion

to Review Prior Opinion on Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss on New Ground.”1

Plaintiff requests review and reconsideration under Rule 59(a) on the ground

that Mr. Musk’s termination letter constitutes new evidence.2 Plaintiff’s reliance on

Rule 59(a) is misplaced. Plaintiff’s request appears to seek relief in connection with

the July 18, 2025 Memorandum Opinion resolving Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss.3

The Memorandum Opinion resolved a pleading-stage motion. Rule 59(a) governs

requests for new trials, not relief in connection with pleading-stage determinations.4

So Rule 59(a) does not apply.

1 C.A. No. 2024-0443-KSJM, Docket (“Dkt.”) 42.

2 Id. at 1–2.

3 See Dkts. 35.

4 See Ct. Ch. R. 59(a) (“A new trial may be granted to all or any of the parties, and on

all or part of the issues for any of the reasons for which rehearings have heretofore
been granted in suits in equity.”).
C.A. No. 2024-0443-KSJM
September 17, 2025
Page 2 of 2

In what is perhaps an overly generous application of the procedural leniency

this court grants self-represented litigants, I am treating Plaintiff’s August 8, 2025

request as taking aim at my August 7, 2025 Letter Decision denying the first motion

for reargument. Rule 59(a) does not apply to the August 7 decision either, so I will

treat the new request as a second motion for reargument under Rule 59(f).

Plaintiff’s second motion for reargument fails on the merits. The court will

grant a motion for reargument upon a showing that the court “has misapprehended

a material fact or rule of law . . . such that the outcome of the decision would be

affected.”5 A motion for reargument is “not a mechanism for litigants to relitigate

claims already considered by the court, or to raise new arguments that they failed to

present in a timely way.”6 Plaintiff has not identified any law or fact that I

misapprehended. He largely re-raises arguments he previously made in his July 28,

2025 motion, arguments that I previously rejected. Plaintiff’s second motion for

reargument is denied. The case is closed.

Sincerely,

/s/ Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick

Chancellor

cc: All counsel of record (by File & ServeXpress)

5 Sunrise Ventures, LLC v. Rehoboth Canal Ventures, LLC, 2010 WL 975581, at *1

(Del. Ch. Mar. 4, 2010), aff’d, 7 A.3d 485 (Del. 2010) (citations and internal quotation
marks omitted).
6 Id. (quoting Am. Legacy Found. V. Lorillard Tobacco Co., 895 A.2d 874, 877 (Del.

Ch. 2005) (internal quotation marks omitted)).