The Dodge brothers sued Henry Ford for dividends, sold him their shares for $25 million, and both died within a year

John and Horace Dodge supplied parts to Henry Ford and were paid partly in Ford stock. They owned about 10 percent of Ford Motor. By 1916 Ford had a surplus of about $60 million, and Henry Ford stopped special dividends to build new plants. The Dodges sued. In 1919 the Michigan Supreme Court upheld an order for an extra dividend of $19.3 million and said a business corporation is run primarily for its stockholders' profit. Ford threatened to start a rival car company. In 1919 the brothers sold their Ford shares back to him for $25 million. In January 1920 both caught influenza at the New York auto show. John died that month, aged 55. Horace died in Palm Beach on 10 December 1920, aged 52. Their widows inherited Dodge Brothers and wanted cash. General Motors, through J.P. Morgan, offered $124,650,000. A syndicate led by Dillon, Read offered $146 million, and in 1925 the widows accepted. Time called it the largest cash sale of an industrial company in US history. The book value was about $90 million. In 1928 Walter Chrysler bought Dodge for $170 million. Horace's son Horace Jr. died in 1963. His widow Anna Thompson Dodge died in 1970 and left Detroit money for the Horace E. Dodge and Son Memorial Fountain, designed by Isamu Noguchi, which opened in Hart Plaza in 1978.