The revolutionary makers of the Mission R and Mission RS electric race bikes Mission Motorcycles this week has filed lawsuit against one of its co-founder.

The firm filed it suit against Vincent Ip recently with the US District Court in New Jersey, asserting that Ip relinquish the stocks he own within the start-up in accordance with a stock restriction agreement signed between all the firm’s co-founders. The agreement stipulates that the company can buy the shares of any of its shareholders should one of them leaves the outfit.

Ip was terminated from his postion at Mission Motorcycles last November after he allegedly made threats of violence against other executives. Reports indicate that Ip and fellow co-founders Andrew Ng and Mark Seeger initially invested US$30,000 in total before each began pumping in an additional US$70,000. The same source also states that the firm is ‘close’ to finalising a major financing round.

In response, Ip has engaged an attorney in an effort to counter-suit the company. Ip’s legal representative also stated that Mission Motorcycle’s suit came as a result of learning that Ip intended to sue the firm earlier accusing it of fraud, contract breach, and other legal issues.

Regardless of size and industry, founder disputes amongst founders within a start up are all too common. Another electric vehicles firm that suffered a similar fate was Tesla, but its founders came to a swift settlement in a mutual goal towards making Tesla one of the industry’s leaders. It is too early to tell weather the brains behind Mission Motorcycles would settle in the same manner, we do hope they do so and continue their groundbreaking efforts.

As a refresher, you can read and view a video we posted a while back about the the company’s Mission R and RS electric race bikes here.

Source: The Record/North Jersey via Asphaltandrubber