ST. LOUIS (AP) — A suburban St. Louis pharmaceutical company has filed a lawsuit seeking to get out of paying its former board chairman and chief executive about $36.9 million in retirement benefits, plus legal expenses.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/qw81tG ) reported that KV Pharmaceutical Co. filed the suit earlier this month in St. Louis County Circuit Court. It accuses former executive Marc Hermelin of breaching his fiduciary obligations to the Bridgeton-based company through his alleged misconduct in shipping oversize painkillers to pharmacies.

In March, Hermelin pleaded guilty in federal court in St. Louis to two criminal misdemeanor counts of mislabeling drugs.

Hermelin claims that he was not fired but resigned. He has demanded that he be paid retirement benefits and reimbursed for his legal expenses. KV contends that it owes him nothing.