15. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENT LIABILITIES

Product Liability Claims

The Company is subject to product warranty claims that arise in the ordinary course of its business. For certain manufactured products, the Company maintains a product warranty accrual which is adjusted on a monthly basis as a percentage of cost of sales. The product warranty accrual is continually reviewed and periodically adjusted based on the identification or resolution of known individual product warranty claims. The following table sets forth the Company’s continuing operations product warranty accrual:



		Warranty Liability
Balance at December 31, 2013	$	7,483
Additions to warranty liability		5,758
Warranty liability utilized		(4,631)
Balance at September 30, 2014	$	8,610

Included within the above table are concrete tie warranty reserves of approximately $7,576 and $6,462 as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively. Increases to the warranty reserve relate to the Company’s standard warranty accrual which is based upon historical claims experience, as well as an incremental $608 reserve related to a transit project warranty issue, and a $4,000 charge related to the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) warranty claim recorded during the 2014 second quarter. The incremental adjustment to the transit project addresses a previously established reserve that is nearing completion. Reductions to the reserve balance primarily relate to warranty claims satisfied through the replacement of concrete ties during the nine-month period ended September 30, 2014.

UPRR Warranty Claim

In July 2011, the UPRR notified the Company and its subsidiary, CXT Incorporated (CXT), of a warranty claim under CXT’s 2005 supply contract relating to the sale of pre-stressed concrete railroad ties to the UPRR. The UPRR asserted that a significant percentage of concrete ties manufactured in 2006 through 2011 at CXT’s former Grand Island, NE facility failed to meet contract specifications, had workmanship defects, and were cracking and failing prematurely. Of the 3.0 million ties manufactured between 1999 and 2011 from the Grand Island, NE facility, approximately 1.6 million relate to concrete ties sold to the UPRR during the period of their claim.

During 2012, as a result of testing and analysis conducted, including with UPRR, on concrete ties manufactured at its former Grand Island, NE facility, the Company reached an agreement with UPRR to amend the 2005 supply contract (2012 amended supply agreement) and, among other matters, reverted to a previously used warranty policy of a 15 year warranty with a 1:1 replacement ratio for all ties sold to UPRR (during most of the period of UPRR’s original claim the warranty policy was a 5 year warranty with a 1.5:1 replacement ratio for any defective ties) and established a process to identify, prioritize, and replace ties that meet the criteria for replacement.

The Company provided warranty replacement ties to UPRR during 2013 for ties which UPRR removed and asserted qualified for warranty replacement. However, the Company believed a significant number of ties replaced by UPRR did not meet the warranty replacement criteria and so informed UPRR. UPRR has claimed that the Company is in breach of the 2012 amended supply agreement for various reasons. The Company has denied UPRR’s claim that it is in material breach of the 2012 amended supply agreement.

As of September 30, 2014, the Company and the UPRR have not been able to reconcile the disagreement related to the 2013 warranty replacement activity. The disagreement includes approximately 170,000 ties. The Company and the UPRR have also not been able to reconcile the 2014 warranty replacement activity during the current year.

The Company continues to work with UPRR to identify, replace, and reconcile defective ties related to the warranty claim in accordance with the 2012 amended supply agreement. The Company and UPRR met during the third quarter of 2014 to evaluate each other’s position in an effort to work towards agreement on the unreconciled 2013 and 2014 replacement activity as well as the standards and practices to be implemented for future replacement activity and warranty tie replacement. No agreement was reached and the Company continues to endeavor to reconcile the replaced warranty ties with UPRR.

In the event that the Company and UPRR do not reach agreement regarding the 2013 and 2014 replacement activity and future activity and is found to be in material breach of the 2012 amended supply agreement, the UPRR may seek damages from the Company and/or terminate the agreement.

During 2012, the Company recorded pre-tax warranty charges of $22,000 in “Cost of Goods Sold” within its Rail Products segment. The accrual was based on the Company’s estimate of the number of defective concrete ties that will ultimately require replacement during the applicable warranty periods at an average cost of fifty dollars per concrete tie. Subsequently, in the second quarter of 2014, the Company increased its accrual by an additional $4,000 based on recent estimates of ties to be replaced. The concrete tie warranty reserve is the best estimate of the expected value of defective ties that will be replaced as a result of observation and analysis of ties in track. While the Company believes this is a reasonable estimate of these potential warranty claims, these estimates could change due to the receipt of new information and future events. The Company will continue to assess the adequacy of its product warranty reserve as additional information becomes available. There can be no assurance at this point that future potential costs pertaining to these claims or other potential future claims will not have a material impact on the Company’s financial condition or results of operations.

Environmental and Legal Proceedings

The Company is subject to national, state, foreign, provincial, and/or local laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment. The Company’s efforts to comply with environmental regulations may have an adverse effect on its future earnings. In the opinion of management, compliance with the present environmental protection laws will not have a material adverse effect on the financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, competitive position, or capital expenditures of the Company.

The Company is also subject to legal proceedings and claims that arise in the ordinary course of its business. In the opinion of management, the amount of ultimate liability with respect to these actions will not materially affect the financial condition or liquidity of the Company. The resolution, in any reporting period, of one or more of these matters could have a material effect on the Company’s results of operations for that period.

As of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, the Company maintained environmental and litigation reserves approximating $3,305 and $2,192, respectively.