Tesla (TSLA) Chief Executive Elon Musk is not entitled to receive a $56 billion compensation package even after the company's shareholders voted to reinstate it, a Delaware judge ruled Monday.
Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick issued a full opinion, following an initial opinion in January, to rescind the package which was described to be excessive.
Tesla had urged the court to consider that its shareholders, in June, voted in favor of the pay package. McCormick said Tesla's board cannot hit "reset" on the decision through a stockholder vote.
"Were the court to condone the practice of allowing defeated parties to create new facts for the purpose of revising judgments, lawsuits would become interminable," McCormick said in her opinion.
Musk responded to the decision in a post on X that "shareholders should control company votes, not judges."
"The court's decision is wrong, and we're going to appeal," Tesla said in a statement on X.
"This ruling, if not overturned, means that judges and plaintiffs' lawyers run Delaware companies rather than their rightful owners - the shareholders," Tesla added.
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