That same year, Henry Ford decided to stop paying stock dividends to finance the construction of his new River Rouge complex, and the Dodges filed a suit to protect their annual stock earnings of approximately one million dollars, leading Ford to buy out his shareholders; the Dodges were paid some US$25 million.($ in dollars ) They had already earned $9,871,500 ($ in dollars ) in dividends making a total return of $34,871,500 ($ in dollars ) on their original $10,000 ($ in dollars ) investment. The contract with Ford set them up for life, but they never got to spend it.