WILMINGTON, Delaware, Oct 31 (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.