McDonald Clark, a former Alamo Rent-A-Car employee has sued AutoNation Inc. over a broken employment contract and won a $1.09 million award, TradingMarkets.com reports.

According to his attorneys, Clark had a five-year contract with Alamo that included a 10-year, $100,000-a-year salary continuation benefit that would begin at the end of the contract. Attorneys Todd Falzone and John Uustal of Kelley/Uustal said the contract was renegotiated in 1996 when Alamo was bought by Republic Industries.

Republic, now AutoNation, bought other rental car companies, as well, including National Car Rental System. It formed a rental car subsidiary, ANC Rental Corp., in 1999. The company spun off ANC in 2000.

Falzone and Ustal said Clark's contract was not renewed in 2000 and he began receiving salary continuation payments. Then, in 2001, Alamo filed for bankruptcy and the payments stopped.

Marc Cannon, AutoNation's senior vice president for corporate communications, said that the company is not responsible for the salary continuation payments because Clark's arrangement was with Alamo, not AutoNation.

Shares of AutoNation recently fell 39 cents, or 4.5 percent, to close at $8.25.