An ex-hedge fund manager may not get $1.8 million from his former employer because of a legal technicality.

Last year, Paul Bottum won a $1.83 million judgment against Jundt Associates after a Minneapolis court ruled that Jim Jundt—the former owner of the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings—and his son Marcus failed to make good on a promise of a $1 million bonus for each year Bottum’s hedge fund topped the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. But the Minnesota Court of Appeals has sent the case back to the lower court, ruling that Bottum may have failed to file his lawsuit before the statute of limitations expired.

Jundt Associates, which is no longer run by the Jundt family, had appealed the lower court ruling, arguing that Bottum had missed the three-year statute of limitations. The bonuses in question would have been for 2000 and 2003.

The Court of Appeals did not overturn the award precisely, but did rule that the lower court’s “findings and conclusion are inadequate” to determine when, exactly, the statute of limitations started ticking.