Can I (legally) pay Elon Musk to NEVER take someone to space?

Factual Questions
1

Okay, SpaceX, Elon Musk. We all know the man, his company, and his goals of space colonization. I recall him saying awhile back that he hopes to eventually drive the cost of moving a transporting a person to a Mars colony down to at least below $250,000.

Now for the hypothetical. Say I’m incredibly wealthy, having made a fortune on smutty Sparkly Vampire novels, and I call up Mr. Musk, and make him an offer: I will pay him $1 Billion to never take a person I hate—Joe Shmoe, of Peoria, for this example—into space, let alone a space colony, and $5 Billion never to take any of his descendants into space. Reason? I hate Joe, and I want him, and preferably his entire bloodline, to remain trapped on Earth to rot, forever.

Leaving aside the fact that this is both A) insane, and B) something that, at best, I’d have to repeat with every private spaceflight company that might ever go into business…would this be legal, under US law? (This is also assuming that, C) I wanted to do this “officially,” and not just pay any rocket company owners under the table for my vendetta.)

I’m assuming, or at least guessing, that this falls under something like “tortious interference,” but I’m not any sort of lawyer, so I couldn’t say for certain.

Could anyone enlighten me? Would I, in fact, be completely wasting my time by expanding the corpus of Sparkly Vampire smut—for the sole purposes of raising space revenge money, I mean?

2

Why not simplify the question.

Coul you create a contract (with a consideration) with Ace Auto to not sell a used car to me or any of my family?

3

I will sign a contract for $10 mil right now that forbids me from ever taking anyone into space. It is a great deal.

4

I’ll do it for half that. Capitalism!

5

I realize (now) we’re in GQ, so I’ll take a stab at it.

By “legal,” you could mean it violates a criminal law, or you could mean it would subject you to a legitimate civil lawsuit.

I’m unaware of any criminal law that would prevent such a contract (assuming no racial or other protected class issues).

It wouldn’t be tortuous interference, unless they had a preexisitng contract you were trying to frustrate. Here’s the Washington State pattern jury instruction on that tort:

I suppose an argument could be made that the contract is void as against public policy.
That’s a slippery area of contract law.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=12&ved=2ahUKEwiD9dymmfPoAhXDvp4KHaJnAAEQFjALegQIAhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fir.law.fsu.edu%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1026%26context%3Dlr&usg=AOvVaw3tMkyRAcbbcyBehhVtoP3U

Maybe Joe could get the contract declared void. (unlikely IMHO) Could he then force spaceX to take him to Mars for the regular price?

I’m probably missing something obvious.

6

Say you did enter into a legally enforceable contract with Mr. Musk. if Mr. Musk decides to breach the contract and take Mr. Shmoe to space anyway, I think that all you are entitled to then are monetary damages. This does not sound like the kind of contract where you could insist on specific performance.

7

Or, it would be a binding contract, which courts would help you enforce.

8

I know it is a stretch, but what about the tort of intrusion upon seclusion? Intrusion on seclusion - Wikipedia

Without any rational reason, the OP is interfering in the private affairs of the other party (e.g. his ability to contract with Elon Musk) by making these silly contracts and preventing the other person from enjoying his right to make contracts with others.

As I said, iti s a stretch, but it may apply as there is no rational reason for the contract. It is solely to screw with another person.

9

Wouldn‘t simply buying SpaceX outright work?

10

Sure, until Musk starts over again with SpaceY and then SpaceZ if needed. No, I’m thinking blackmail. “Ground Joe Schmoe or your poodle gets it!” But that’s not legal in most places. So instead of bribery or fear, think leasing. Lease every SpaceX capsule, with control over ticket sales. It’s Musk’s rocket but MY passenger list! No go, Joe.

11

Counterproductive - you’re providing SpaceX with guaranteed sales, giving them ample motivation to build more capsules for you to have to lease; you’d go broke making SpaceX rich.

12

Hell, I’ll agree to it for a fifth of Jim Beam.

13

I’m sure that legally the OP could enter into a contract with Musk to do just as he wishes, as it is a civil contract.

However, OP will likely need more money to spread around to fully achieve his objective of keeping the Schmoe clan stuck on earth. As there are competitors to Musk, and that number will likely grow over time.

14

I think that’s what Procrustus meant when he said “it would subject you to a legitimate civil lawsuit”.

I don’t see why this would not be enforceable; remember, it’s a contract with Musk, not Mr. Shmoe, and Musk is perfectly free to sign this type of deal, which is basically just an ‘exclusive contract’ (i.e. I am contracting with you so that I am the exclusive source that you do business with), with the added caveat that the OP hasn’t actually said that he’s doing business, just excluding another.

[E.G. Imagine that Coca-Cola goes to a bottler and signs a contract that says, “You will only bottle Coca-Cola products; no Pepsi”. There’s nothing wrong with that, although it would be somewhat strange - from a business standpoint - if Coca-Cola never then placed any orders with the company. I suppose if the payments to not do business were enough (and the OP is proposing a cool billion), though, it would be sensible.]

15

I am positive you can’t write a contract to ban someone’s descendants from going into space (or anyone else). This contract literally impacts people who don’t exist yet.

16

But you aren’t doing that. Instead, you are writing a contract which prevents Musk from contracting with these people, and which is enforceable against Musk.

17

:dubious:

18

“Impacting” people who don’t exist yet isn’t at all strange. If I came up with some great invention, sold the patent for it to some big company for a billion bucks, and then met a nice woman who loved me for my personality and didn’t care that I was a billionaire, settled down, and had 2.4 children, those children would certainly be impacted by the billion-dollar contract I signed, even though they didn’t exist when I signed it.

19

I am not a lawyer. Explain why this isn’t blatant harrassment?

Harassment is governed by state laws, which vary by state, but is generally defined as a course of conduct which annoys, threatens, intimidates, alarms, or puts a person in fear of their safety. Harassment is unwanted, unwelcomed and uninvited behavior that demeans, threatens or offends the victim and results in a hostile environment for the victim. Harassing behavior may include, but is not limited to, epithets, derogatory comments or slurs and lewd propositions, assault, impeding or blocking movement, offensive touching or any physical interference with normal work or movement, and visual insults, such as derogatory posters or cartoons.

TCMF-2L

20

That’s not a full definition of harassment: Lots of things meet that definition while still being allowed. A full definition would be found in each state’s laws, and might or might not include the OP’s contract with Musk.