Judge rejects Tesla's attempt to revive Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package

Driving the news: McCormick on Monday rejected Tesla's request to authorize the package after the company's shareholders formally endorsed it in a non-binding vote in June.

• She said Musk's attorneys made an argument with multiple "fatal flaws," including their argument that the shareholder vote was enough to validate the pay package after the fact.
• "The large and talented group of defense firms got creative with the ratification argument, but their unprecedented theories go against multiple strains of settled law," McCormick said in her ruling.

The other side: Musk did not respond to a request seeking comment, but he has repeatedly ripped Delaware since the original ruling.

• "Companies should get the hell out of Delaware," he said on his platform X in August.

Zoom in: The judge also ordered Tesla to pay $345 million in fees and fund reimbursement to shareholder attorneys.

• "We hope that the Chancellor's well-reasoned decision will end this matter for the shareholders of Tesla," the plaintiff's attorneys at law firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann said in a statement. "However, if defendants choose to further delay implementation of this judgment by appealing it, we look forward to the privilege of defending the Court's thoughtful and well-grounded opinions on appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court."

What to watch for: Whether Tesla appeals or decides to arrange a new compensation plan for Musk.