By Tom Hals

A trial court properly found that Telsa Inc chief Elon Musk did not push the electric carmaker to overpay for SolarCity in 2016, the Delaware Supreme Court said on Tuesday, ending years of litigation over the $2.6 billion deal.

Musk was the biggest shareholder in both companies at the time of the deal and Tesla shareholders alleged he pushed the carmaker's board into the deal to bail out the billionaire's investment in the struggling rooftop solar company.

The state's highest court said that while a judge on the Delaware Court of Chancery erred in some portions of his analysis, his overall premise still supported his determination that Tesla paid a fair price for SolarCity.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware)