see, this, then, gets very tangled in the terms of the agreement, and - as there seemingly were none - and lawsuit could get dismissed. or a judge could decide that Tesla is liable anyway, and then Tesla would appeal, costing the business owner even more in legal fees.
if Tesla was ever going to pay the $16k, they would have done it long before engaging in a legal dispute that will end up costing tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars more. at this point, it has nothing to do with money, and everything to do with fucking this lady over as hard as they can to punish her for embarrassing them.