Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s record-breaking $56bn (£47bn) pay award will not be reinstated, a judge has ruled. The decision in the Delaware court comes after months of legal wrangling and despite it being approved by shareholders and directors in the summer. Judge Kathaleen McCormick upheld her previous decision from January, in which she argued that board members were too heavily influenced by Mr Musk. Reacting to the ruling, Mr Musk wrote on X: “[S]hareholders should control company votes, not judges.” Tesla vowed to appeal the ruling, saying the decision was “wrong”. “This ruling, if not overturned, means that judges and plaintiffs’ lawyers run Delaware companies rather than their rightful owners – the shareholders,” the company said in a post on X. Judge McCormick said the pay package would have been the largest ever for the boss of a listed company. Tesla failed to prove the pay package, which dates back to 2018, was fair, she said. A shareholder vote on the payment passed by 75% in June, but the judge did not agree the pay should be so large despite what she called Tesla’s lawyers’ “creative” arguments. The judge also ruled the Tesla shareholder who brought the case against Tesla and Mr Musk should receive $345m in fees but not the $5.6bn in Tesla shares they asked for.
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