• A California judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing Elon Musk's Twitter takeover of cheating shareholders.

• It included claims that Musk saved millions by belatedly disclosing his 9.2% stake in Twitter.

• But the judge said the claims lacked standing because they didn't actually challenge the fairness of the deal.

A lawsuit which claimed Elon Musk's Twitter takeover cheated shareholders was dismissed by a judge on Monday.

William Heresniak filed the complaint last May, a month after Twitter first accepted Musk's $44 billion offer.

The suit, which Insider has reviewed, cites a Wall Street Journal article which estimated Musk saved $143 million by belatedly disclosing his 9.2% stake in the company.

And it argued that Musk helped friends on the board, including cofounder Jack Dorsey, prioritize their own interests rather than shareholders.

Heresniak also claimed that Musk had attempted to exit the deal — which was completed just before a trial was due following a lengthy back and forth — because his Tesla stock used to finance the purchase was declining in value.

But U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer threw out the case because Heresniak couldn't show he was harmed by Musk's late disclosure, or prove Musk assisted friendly board members, Reuters first reported.

In a March 3 court filing, Musk's lawyers called the claims "a disjointed laundry list of – often irrelevant – grievances against Elon Musk," per Reuters.

On Monday, Breyer sided with them by saying the plaintiff lacked standing because he didn't challenge the fairness of the takeover, only "wrongs associated with the merger."

For example, the judge wrote: "Though Heresniak alleges that Musk was enriched by acquiring Twitter stock at depressed prices, he does not allege that Heresniak lost money as a result."

Since Musk bought Twitter last October, the company has fallen in value by more than half, according to employee stock grants which value it at $20 billion.