ST. LOUIS, MO - Schnuck Markets has been ordered to pay $4.56 million to the company’s former President Anthony Hucker after losing a breach-of-contract lawsuit, according to a St. Louis Business Journal Report.

Hucker, the former President and COO of Schnuck Markets and current President and CEO of Southeastern Grocers, first filed suit against his former employer in 2016 after he was fired from Schnuck Markets—allegedly for asking to be released from a non-compete agreement to take a position as CEO of Save-A-Lot.

After Hucker told CEO Todd Schnuck that he would decline Save-A-Lot’s offer and stay with Schnuck Markets should he not be released from the company’s non-compete agreement, Hucker was placed on administrative leave and eventually terminated.

Schnuck Markets stated that it had terminated Hucker after he shared confidential information to a third-party consultant without having a non-disclosure agreement in place. The company alleged, too, that Hucker’s expenses were “far in excess of other senior leaders.”

Last week, a circuit court in St. Louis County ruled that Schnuck Markets did not have legal grounds for termination, calling Schnuck Markets’ reasonings “sophistry” and “heresy.”

Both Schnuck Markets' attorneys and Hucker’s declined to comment to the St. Louis Business Journal.