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Legal Proceedings and Other Contingencies
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2019
Commitments And Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Legal Proceedings and Other Contingencies

17. Legal Proceedings and Other Contingencies

The Company is involved in various legal proceedings, including product liability, employment related issues, and workers’ compensation matters which have arisen in the normal course of operations. The Company has product liability insurance with self- insurance retention limits that range from $50 to $500.

The Company has been named as a defendant in several multi-defendant asbestos related product liability lawsuits. In certain instances, the Company is indemnified by a former owner of the product line in question. In the remaining cases the plaintiff has, to date, not been able to establish any exposure by the plaintiff to the Company’s products. The Company is uninsured with respect to these claims but believes that it will not incur any material liability with respect to these claims.

When it is probable that a loss has been incurred and possible to make a reasonable estimate of the Company’s liability with respect to such matters, a provision is recorded for the amount of such estimate or the minimum amount of a range of estimates when it is not possible to estimate the amount within the range that is most likely to occur. The Company established reserves for several PM lawsuits in conjunction with the accounting for our acquisition of PM.

Additionally, beginning on December 31, 2011, the Company’s workmen’s compensation insurance policy has a per claim deductible of $250 and annual aggregates that range from $1,000 to $1,875 depending on the policy year. The Company is fully insured for any amount on any individual claim that exceeds the deductible and for any additional amounts of all claims once the aggregate is reached. The Company does not believe that the contingencies associated with these workers’ compensation claims in aggregate will have a material adverse effect on the Company.

On May 5, 2011, the Company entered into two separate settlement agreements with two plaintiffs. As of September 30, 2019, the Company has a remaining obligation under the agreements to pay the plaintiffs an aggregate of $1,140 without interest in 12 annual installments of $95 on or before May 22 of each year. The Company has recorded a liability for the net present value of the liability. The difference between the net present value and the total payment will be charged to interest expense over the payment period.

It is reasonably possible that the “Estimated Reserve for Product Liability Claims” may change within the next 12 months. A change in estimate could occur if a case is settled for more or less than anticipated, or if additional information becomes known to the Company.

Romania Income Tax Audit

As described in Note 14, Income Taxes, included in the unrecognized tax benefits is a liability for the disputed Romania income tax audit assessment for tax years 2012-2016.  Depending upon the final resolution of the income tax assessment, the liability could be higher or lower than the amount recorded at September 30, 2019.

Residual Value Guarantees

 

The Company issues residual value guarantees to support a customer’s financing of equipment purchased from the Company. A residual value guarantee involves a guarantee that a piece of equipment will have a minimum fair market value at a future date if certain conditions are met by the customer. The Company has issued partial residual guarantees that have maximum exposure of approximately $1.6 million. The Company does not have any reason to believe that any exposure from such a guarantee is either probable or estimable at this time, as such no liability has been recorded. The Company’s ability to recover losses experienced from its guarantees may be affected by economic conditions in used equipment markets at the time of loss.

 

SEC Inquiry

 

The Company continues to comply with the SEC investigation regarding the Company’s restatement of prior financial statements, which was completed in April 2018.