According to PANews on December 3, the Delaware Chancery Court judge again rejected Tesla CEO Elon Musk's $55.8 billion compensation plan. The judge made the ruling based on the following three reasons:
Shareholder votes cannot retroactively validate breaches of fiduciary duty, particularly in transactions with conflicts of interest;
Tesla did not raise the ratification argument during the trial, making it procedurally invalid;
The materials used for soliciting votes are misleading and undermine the legitimacy of the voting.
In addition, the court rejected Tesla's attempt to use shareholder votes as new evidence to overturn a prior ruling. The court emphasized that post-trial evidence cannot be used in this manner, as allowing such a strategy would weaken the deterrent effect of lawsuits aimed at holding corporate leaders accountable for misconduct.