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DOVER, Del. (AP) — The legal professionals who efficiently argued {that a} large pay package deal for Tesla CEO Elon Musk was unlawful and ought to be voided have requested the presiding decide to award them firm inventory value $5.6 billion as authorized charges.
The attorneys, who represented Tesla shareholders within the case determined in January, made the request of the Delaware decide in court docket papers filed Friday.
The quantity would apparently be far and away the biggest such award, if accepted. Attorneys in class-action fits stemming from the collapse of Enron bought a record $688 million in legal fees in 2008.
“We’re ‘ready to eat our cooking,’” the Tesla plaintiff attorneys wrote within the court docket submitting, arguing the sum is justified as a result of they labored purely on a contingency foundation for greater than 5 years. In the event that they misplaced they might have gotten nothing. The profit to Tesla “was large,” they mentioned.
The requested award represents 11% of the Tesla inventory — value some $55 billion — that Musk was in search of within the compensation package deal, which Decide Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick ruled illegal in January.
Not solely does the request take nothing from the electrical automobile firm’s stability sheet, it’s also tax deductible, the attorneys argued. They’re additionally in search of $1.1 million in bills.
In her ruling, Decide McCormick accepted the shareholder legal professionals’ argument that Musk personally dictated the landmark 2018 pay package deal in sham negotiations with administrators who weren’t impartial.
It might have practically doubled Musk’s stake in Tesla. He at present holds 13%.
