COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

12 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

We lease facilities and certain equipment under operating leases expiring at various dates through fiscal 2017. Facility leases require us to pay certain insurance expenses, maintenance costs and real estate taxes.

Approximate future basic rental commitments under operating leases as of March 31, 2012 are as follows (in thousands):

Fiscal Year Ending
2013	$	6,169
2014	4,093
2015	2,718
2016	2,320
2017	1,852
Thereafter	2,456
	$	19,608

Rent expense in fiscal 2012, 2011, and 2010 was $6.1 million, $6.6 million, and $5.9 million, respectively.

During the first quarter of fiscal 2012, we received customer complaints in Europe regarding a quality issue with our High Separation Core Bowl (“HS Core”), a plasma disposable product used primarily to collect plasma for transfusion. Certain of these customers also made subsequent claims regarding financial losses alleged to have been incurred as a result of this matter. As of March 31, 2012, our current best estimate of the liability associated with this matter is $10.0 million, and we recorded that amount as an expense within selling, general and administrative expenses. To date, we have been reimbursed under our insurance policies for $3.7 million paid to customers to settle their claims. We have also determined that an additional $3.2 million is recoverable under our insurance policies and recorded a corresponding insurance receivable within current assets as of March 31, 2012. Receivables for insurance recoveries for product liability claims are recorded as assets, on an undiscounted basis, when it is probable that a recovery will be realized on a claim by claim basis. We have recorded $3.1 million of expenses, net of insurance recovery, within selling, general and administrative expenses for fiscal 2012 related to this matter.

In September 2011, we entered into an agreement to release the Company from the contingent consideration due to the former shareholders of Neoteric. Under the terms of the agreement, the former shareholders of Neoteric received $0.7 million in exchange for releasing the Company from any future claims for contingent consideration. The Company paid the $0.7 million settlement amount during September 2011 and has recorded the associated expense in the selling, general and administrative line item in the accompanying consolidated statements of income.

We are presently engaged in various legal actions, and although our ultimate liability cannot be determined at the present time, we believe that any such liability will not materially affect our consolidated financial position or our results of operations.

For the past five years, we have pursued patent infringement lawsuits against Fenwal Inc. seeking an injunction and damages from their infringement of a Haemonetics patent, through the sale of the ALYX brand automated red cell collection system, a competitor of our automated red cell collection systems.

Currently, we are pursuing a patent infringement action in Germany against Fenwal, and its European and German subsidiary. On September 20, 2010, we filed a patent infringement action in Germany. In response, Fenwal filed an action to invalidate the Haemonetics patent which is the subject of this infringement action on December 1, 2010.

In April 2008, our subsidiary Haemonetics Italia, Srl. and two of its employees were found guilty by a court in Milan, Italy of charges arising from allegedly improper payments made under a consulting contract with a local physician and in pricing products under a tender from a public hospital. The two employees found guilty in this matter are no longer employed by the Company. On June 14, 2011, the final level appeals court affirmed these verdicts. There are no further appeals available and the convictions are now final. In connection with this conviction, our Italian subsidiary is liable to pay a fine of €147,500 and a proportionate share of the cost of the proceedings. The final amount has not yet been determined.

When this matter first arose, our Board of Directors commissioned independent legal counsel to conduct investigations on its behalf. Based upon its evaluation of counsel's report, the Board concluded that no disciplinary action was warranted in either case. Neither the original ruling nor its final affirmation has impacted the Company's business in Italy to date.