A final judgment and decree of divorce was granted to appellant Rickey Alan Cason “husband” and appellee Betty Jean Brown Cason “wife” in 1995. Through 2004, husband was a chicken farmer and a shareholder/member of the Gold Kist Cooperative. As part of his membership in the cooperative, husband was allocated a portion of the cooperative’s earnings for each year of his membership.1 The final decree incorporated a settlement agreement which provided in pertinent part that the equity in the marital home amounted to $125,000, that wife’s share was $62,500, but that wife would relinquish her share of the equity and allow husband to continue to reside there. In consideration therefor, she would receive “the entire Gold Kist Patron Dividends payment from 1987 through 1993.” Historically, patronage equity credits listed in a member’s patronage equity account had been redeemed by Gold Kist and paid in cash, but such payments were made approximately 15-25 years in the future. Thus, the parties contemplated that the 1987 patronage equity listed in the account held in husband’s name would be paid by Gold Kist in 2007, and so on for the rest of the patronage equity to be received by wife in the divorce settlement. An exhibit to the agreement, entitled “patron equity report,” showed that husband’s expected distributions for those years amounted to $150,027.52.2 Husband was to receive any Gold Kist equity distributions made beyond 1993. In 2004 Gold Kist converted from a cooperative to a for-profit corporation at which time the equity position held by husband was converted to cash and common stock. Wife requested that husband deliver to her the cash and common stock attributable to the years 1987 through 1993 in lieu of her interest in the patron equity account for those years as set forth in the agreement. When he refused to do so, she filed a petition for contempt.
The trial court declined to find husband in wilful contempt but ordered that he deliver to wife a sum of cash and Gold Kist stock in lieu of her interest in the patron equity account for the years in the question, based upon a formula that the court applied. The court also awarded attorney fees to wife resulting from husband’s “stubborn litigiousness.” We granted husband’s application for discretionary review.
