Court Again Strikes Down Elon Musk’s Tesla Pay Package Valued at More Than $50 Billion

Shares of Tesla slipped in after-hours trading Monday following the news that a Delaware judge for a second time moved to strike down a multibillion-dollar pay package for CEO Elon Musk.

Tesla’s (TSLA) stock, which rose more than 3% in Monday’s regular session, was off more than 1% in late action.

The decision by Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick upholds her own, earlier, ruling invalidating the package, which was valued above $50 billion. That decision was followed in June by a shareholder vote to approve the pay package. Both Tesla and Musk can appeal the latest ruling.

Musk, who in addition to Tesla runs several other multibillion-dollar companies and has lately been active in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, is the world’s wealthiest person.

The package, challenged on the grounds that it was excessive and approved by a board not sufficiently independent of Musk, was defended in part by the notion that Musk should be compensated generously to keep him engaged on his work at Tesla.