Navistar: isn’t it ironic?

It’s hard not to look at the 8K that Navistar International (NAVZ) filed late Friday and not want to start humming a few bars of Alanis Morissette’s classic song, Ironic.

Maybe it’s just the way my mind works, but there’s something about giving the new chief risk officer — the company announced last week that CFO Bill Caton was moving into the job — a guarantee that he won’t lose money if he has to sell his house in Illinois, presumably near Navistar’s headquarters. The filing does not include either Caton’s contract, nor the contract for Terry Endsley, who is replacing Caton as CFO, so it’s hard to get at the exact terms. But the filing clearly notes that the company will “make him (Caton) whole for any losses incurred on the sale of his home in Illinois.”

A quick skim of Navistar’s filings shows that the job of chief risk officer appears to be new since none of the earlier filings turn up someone with that title. But Caton’s perks are not, judging by this 8K from October 2005. Under that agreement, Caton was paid a $600K signing bonus; and an additional $600K for being employed on both Feb. 1, 2006 and $647,500 for being employed on Feb. 1, 2007. Oh — and there was also a modest $60,000 relocation bonus to entice the executive into buying a home in Warrenville.