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LEGAL CONTINGENCIES
12 Months Ended
Jan. 31, 2020
LEGAL CONTINGENCIES  
LEGAL CONTINGENCIES

NOTE 11 – LEGAL CONTINGENCIES

 

In the normal course of business, the Company may also have pending claims and legal proceedings. It is the opinion of management, based on information available at this time, that there are no current claims and proceedings that could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s consolidated financial statements except for the outstanding matter described below.

 

Outstanding Legal Matter

 

In January 2019, GPS filed a lawsuit against Exelon West Medway II, LLC and Exelon Generation Company, LLC (together referred to as “Exelon”) for Exelon’s breach of contract and failure to remedy various conditions which negatively impacted the schedule and the costs associated with the construction by GPS of a gas-fired power plant for Exelon in Massachusetts. As a result, the Company believes that Exelon has received the benefits of the construction efforts of GPS and the corresponding progress made on the project without making payments to GPS for the value received (see Note 6). On March 7, 2019, Exelon provided GPS with a notice intending to terminate the EPC contract under which GPS had been providing services to Exelon. At that time, the construction project was nearly complete and both of the power generation units included in the plant had successfully reached first fire. The completion of various prescribed performance tests and the clearance of punch-list items were the primary tasks necessary to be accomplished by GPS in order to achieve substantial completion of the power plant. Nevertheless, and among other actions, Exelon provided contractual notice requiring GPS to vacate the construction site, asserting that GPS  had failed to fulfill certain obligations under the contract and was in default, and has withheld payments from GPS on invoices rendered to Exelon in accordance with the terms of the EPC contract between the parties.

 

With vigor, GPS intends to assert its rights under the EPC contract, to pursue the collection from Exelon of amounts owed under the contract and to defend itself against the allegations that GPS has not performed in accordance with the contract. During Fiscal 2020, most of the litigation activities have focused on pre-trial preparations by the legal teams. All discovery is scheduled to close on April 30, 2020.

 

Settled Legal Matters

 

In another legal matter, GPS was in a dispute with a former subcontractor on one of its power plant construction projects that was settled pursuant to binding arbitration in June 2018. The arbitration panel awarded approximately $5.2 million, plus interest of $0.7 million and arbitration fees, to the subcontractor. The substantial portion of the total amount, which was paid by GPS to the subcontractor in July 2018, was charged to cost of revenues during Fiscal 2019. In connection with the settlement, the legal claims made by the parties against each other were dismissed with prejudice and without costs to the parties, all liens filed by the subcontractor related to the project were released, and each party provided the other with a release from future claims related to this matter.

 

On February 1, 2016, TRC was sued in Person County, North Carolina, by a subcontractor, PPS Engineers, Inc. (“PPS”), which also made other claims, in an attempt to force TRC to pay invoices for services rendered in the total amount of $2.3 million. On March 4, 2016, TRC filed responses to the claims of PPS. The amounts invoiced by PPS were accrued by TRC and the corresponding liability amounts were included in accounts payable in the consolidated balance sheet as January 31, 2018. TRC did not record an account receivable for the amounts it believed were owed to it by PPS. After an attempted mediation effort was unproductive in resolving the disputes and the litigation process was begun, the parties agreed to a settlement of all claims made against each other with TRC agreeing to make a payment to PPS in the amount of $0.9 million. As the total of the previously accrued amounts exceeded the negotiated settlement amount, the Company recorded a gain on the settlement in the amount of $1.4 million that was included in other income for Fiscal 2019.