Every so often a case comes along that reads less like a business dispute and more like a cautionary tale about the perils arising out of unwritten deals among friends. As we’ve written about before, these cases can be brutal to defend, particularly where the pleadings just robust enough to survive a motion to dismiss, dragging the parties through years of costly litigation before the truth is sorted out.

But in today’s case, Tesla v Pelinkovic, we are treated to the cautionary tale without the long litigation road: both the District Court and the Second Circuit concluded that not only does plaintiff’s Second Amended Complaint (SAC) fail to plead the existence of a partnership or joint venture, amendment would be “futile,”…