The ongoing litigation between Chubb Ltd. and former executive Michael Chang took another turn Wednesday when Mr. Chang sued the insurer for more than $600,000 in deferred compensation.

In a suit filed in federal district court in New Jersey, Mr. Chang, who left Chubb in 2016 with several of his staff to join rival insurer Endurance Specialty Insurance Holdings Ltd., alleges that Chubb put an unwarranted “litigation hold” on deferred compensation he was due in 2017.

According to the suit, Michael Chang v. Chubb INA Holdings Inc. and the Chubb Corporation Key Employee Deferred Compensation Plan, Mr. Chang, who worked at Chubb for 19 years, rising to head its real estate and hospitality insurance business before leaving shortly after it was acquired by Ace Ltd., received various stock awards as part of his long-term incentive plan that he elected to defer.

After he left, Chubb sued Mr. Chang alleging he took confidential business records with him to Endurance, which was acquired by Sompo Holdings Inc. last year. The litigation is ongoing.

In early 2017, Mr. Chang noticed that he had not received a check related to the deferred awards. “Chang’s investigation revealed that the plan was withholding payment of amounts related to Chang’s deferred stock awards and had instructed Merrill Lynch to place a ‘litigation hold’ on any payments to Chang,” the suit says.

“Altogether, Chubb is improperly preventing and withholding payment of balances in excess of $600,000 related to (performance share units), (restricted stock units), and related dividend equivalents thereof that were earned and properly deferred by Mr. Chang beginning in 2005 and continuing in most years up to and including 2015,” the suit states.

Mr. Chang wrote to Chubb in June 2017 claiming the stock awards, but Chubb refused to pay, asserting that he had violated nondisclosure and nonsolicitation clauses in compensation agreements. Mr. Chang asserts in the suit that the compensation agreements do not contain restrictive covenants.

Mr. Chang is seeking unspecified compensatory, punitive and other damages.

Chubb did not immediately return a call seeking comment.