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Contingencies and Commitments
12 Months Ended
Apr. 28, 2018
Contingencies and Commitments  
Contingencies and Commitments

 

Note 13: Contingencies and Commitments

 

We have been named as a defendant in various lawsuits arising in the ordinary course of business and as a potentially responsible party at certain environmental clean-up sites, the effect of which are not considered significant. Based on a review of all currently known facts and our experience with previous legal and environmental matters, we have recorded expense in respect of probable and reasonably estimable losses arising from legal matters, and we currently do not believe it is probable that we will have any additional loss for legal or environmental matters that would be material to our consolidated financial statements.

 

In view of the inherent difficulty of predicting the outcome of litigation, particularly where the claimants seek very large or indeterminate damages or where the matters present novel legal theories, we generally cannot predict the eventual outcome, timing, or related loss, if any, of pending matters.

 

We were a party to a civil lawsuit over a contract that the other party claimed required us to make payments in respect of certain power units. Following a verdict in the lawsuit during fiscal 2016, we recognized expense of $5.5 million in our consolidated statement of income. Subsequent to that verdict, we accrued $3.9 million of expense for royalties and interest related to this matter in our consolidated statement of income, for sales of certain power units from February 2016 through October 2017.

 

During the third quarter of fiscal 2018, we entered into a settlement agreement and release that settled the legal dispute. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the parties settled the legal dispute with no admission of liability, wrongdoing or responsibility by any of the parties, released each other from all future and past claims under the contract at issue in the lawsuit, including resolving all associated future royalty obligations, and agreed to dismiss all claims with prejudice, and we agreed to pay the other party $13.5 million. With the announced settlement, we recognized an additional charge of $4.1 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2018. We paid the settlement in the third quarter of fiscal 2018 and recorded the majority of the $13.5 million charge in our consolidated statement of income, in selling, general and administrative expense.