I most certainly did not . Read the last sentence in the article . The Dodge Brothers were suing for 2 things To force Ford to distribute the extra profits to shareholders , and to stop him from using any of it to open a new plant . They were successful in forcing him to distribute the money instead of increasing wages and improving the community , but they were unsuccessful in stopping him from building the plant because it was argued doing so would increase future shareholder value . Both of those facts set the precedent that shareholder value is the ultimate . Note , however , that cases since then have refined this precedent somewhat to say that doing things like spending money to enhance corporate image is acceptable , so long as it would increase company value in the long run . This is the principle set in several other cases , such as the one uKunuDoLess cited .