Judge aims to rule on Elon Musk's $56 billion Tesla pay by year end

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - The Delaware judge considering whether a vote by Tesla shareholders reinstated Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package which the court had voided will try to issue a ruling this year, according to the judge's letter to the lawyers in the case.

"I write to inform you that I aim to issue that decision before the end of this year," said the letter from Kathaleen McCormick, the chancellor on Delaware's Court of Chancery.

Musk's 2018 pay package of stock options is by far the largest ever in corporate America. McCormick ruled in January that the "unfathomable" compensation was unfair to Tesla shareholders and found it was negotiated by directors who appeared beholden to Musk.

McCormick is weighing two decisions that will have a multibillion-dollar impact on Tesla and its investors.

One is the request for Tesla to pay a legal fee of $1 billion in cash or more in stock to the lawyers who represented the shareholder who sued Musk over his pay.

The other is to decide whether a June vote by Tesla shareholders restored the pay package after McCormick voided it in her January court ruling.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Sonali Paul)