Commitments and Contingencies

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Commitments and Contingencies

Commitments and Contingencies

7. Commitments and Contingencies

• Claims and Lawsuits

        We are subject to certain legal and regulatory claims, including lawsuits arising in the normal course of business. We maintain various insurance coverages to minimize financial risk associated with these claims. We have estimated and provided accruals for probable losses and related legal fees associated with certain litigation in the accompanying consolidated financial statements. Although management currently believes that resolving claims against us, individually or in aggregate, will not have a material adverse impact on our operating results or financial condition, these matters are subject to inherent uncertainties and management's view of these matters may change in the future.

        In December 2011, we received a letter from Ferguson Enterprises, Inc. ("Ferguson"), a distributor of plumbing supplies and pipe, in which Ferguson stated that it had unintentionally supplied us with gaskets that were mislabeled by a former supplier as being non-asbestos. Ferguson currently states that we bought approximately 29,000 gaskets that might have been mislabeled. Ferguson further disclosed that four Ferguson customers had found asbestos in gaskets above the 1% level at which they can be classified as non-asbestos. No reasonable estimate of liability, if any, is possible at this time.

• Surety

        Many customers, particularly in connection with new construction, require us to post performance and payment bonds issued by a financial institution known as a surety. If we fail to perform under the terms of a contract or to pay subcontractors and vendors who provided goods or services under a contract, the customer may demand that the surety make payments or provide services under the bond. We must reimburse the surety for any expenses or outlays it incurs. To date, we are not aware of any losses to our sureties in connection with bonds the sureties have posted on our behalf, and do not expect such losses to be incurred in the foreseeable future.

        Surety market conditions remain challenging as a result of significant losses incurred by many sureties in recent periods, both in the construction industry as well as in certain larger corporate bankruptcies. As a result, less bonding capacity is available in the market and terms have become more restrictive. Further, under standard terms in the surety market, sureties issue bonds on a project-by-project basis, and can decline to issue bonds at any time. Historically, approximately 25% to 35% of our business has required bonds. While we have strong surety relationships to support our bonding needs, current market conditions as well as changes in the sureties' assessment of our operating and financial risk could cause the sureties to decline to issue bonds for our work. If that were to occur, the alternatives include doing more business that does not require bonds, posting other forms of collateral for project performance such as letters of credit or cash, and seeking bonding capacity from other sureties. We would likely also encounter concerns from customers, suppliers and other market participants as to our creditworthiness. While we believe our general operating and financial characteristics, including a significant amount of cash on our balance sheet, would enable us to ultimately respond effectively to an interruption in the availability of bonding capacity, such an interruption would likely cause our revenue and profits to decline in the near term.

• Self-Insurance

        We are substantially self-insured for workers' compensation, employer's liability, auto liability, general liability and employee group health claims, in view of the relatively high per-incident deductibles we absorb under our insurance arrangements for these risks. Losses up to deductible amounts are estimated and accrued based upon known facts, historical trends and industry averages. Loss estimates associated with the larger and longer-developing risks, such as workers' compensation, auto liability and general liability, are reviewed by a third-party actuary quarterly.