Marriage of Brigden

Ann (plaintiff) and John Brigden (defendant), married in 1953 and divorced in 1976, jointly owned as community property roughly 7.6 percent of the stock of Logicon, Inc., a company John helped found in 1961 that grew from about $1,000 in value to millions and became publicly traded; John served as Logicon's senior vice president and board member, with the trial court finding his stock ownership influenced but wasn't the critical factor in his continued management role. The trial court awarded all the Logicon stock to John, conditioned on his purchasing or releasing one-half the shares to Ann on a set four-year disbursement schedule; Ann appealed.