As expected, former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso has told a state appeals court that he will challenge last week's ruling from Justice Charles E. Ramos that he return as much as $100 million in compensation, reports the New York Times.

In their motion, Grasso's lawyers said the judge "ignored the law and the facts".

This comes as Bloomberg's Graef Crystal notes that despite getting shot in the guts, Grasso may yet come out victorious.

In his piece, Crystal says Ramos was naive to think that Grasso wasn't entitled to millions just because he wasn't fired.

"But what Ramos doesn't seem to understand is that in probably the majority of firings, a senior executive is given a chance to save face by saying he resigned. Michael Ovitz did that at Walt Disney Co., for example. But then the company turns around and pays out fat severance, thereby making a mockery of the claim that the executive quit under his own power.

"And so it is with Grasso. What if the NYSE board had asked for his resignation and Grasso turned around and said: 'You know, I've been thinking it over, and I don't want to leave after all'? Would the response have been 'OK, that's fine, Dick. Stick around'?

He also points out that there was full disclosure right at the end of Grasso's tenure when his contract was approved by the compensation committee.

"The directors knew precisely how much money was involved. That they didn't balk suggests to me that most of the blame for paying all that cash to Grasso lies with the committee, which was stuffed with luminous and brain-dead CEOs."

Meanwhile after saying that Ramos decision would provide the Securities and Exchange Commission with ammunition in its fight for fuller disclosure, David Weidner from MarketWatch seems to have had second thoughts in his latest piece.

The Skilling sentence and the Grasso decision were part of a good week for underdogs but this could end up in heartbreak, Weidner says.

"Some legal analysts believe Skilling could see his sentenced reduced, but still expect he will serve at least 15 years. Others think there's a possibility of a pardon being granted by President Bush when he leaves office at the end of his term. By then, the corporate scandals from early in the decade won't be stinging but scar tissue.
Judging by the government's stamina against Frank Quattrone, Skilling just may need to outlast ambitious prosecutors' stay in office. Now it doesn't seem like Ken Lay got the better deal at all.

"Grasso and Skilling took some pretty big blows that may in the end turn out to be glancing. Each has the resources and a strong team, however. Grasso's legal team defended Oliver North. Skilling has Daniel Petrocelli, an all-star attorney who once helped an all-star athlete beat a murder rap."

Watch this space.