James Nation v. American Capital, L

SYKES, Circuit Judge.

For more than a decade, James Nation served as CEO of The Spring Air Company, which owned and licensed the “Spring Air” mattress brand name. Nation and Spring Air parted ways in 2007, and Nation won a generous severance package entitling him to $1.2 million in payments spread over 15 months provided he did not work for Spring Air’s competitors through December 31, 2008. Spring Air paid Nation more than $836,000 under this agreement, but in August 2008 ceased making payments due to serious liquidity problems. Spring Air never solved its cash-flow problems and ultimately…