11.	Litigation (claims not in thousands)

The Corporation and its subsidiaries are involved in various claims and lawsuits incidental to their businesses. In addition, it is also subject to asbestos litigation as described below.

Asbestos Litigation

Claims have been asserted alleging personal injury from exposure to asbestos-containing components historically used in some products of predecessors of the Corporation's Air & Liquid Systems Corporation subsidiary ("Asbestos Liability") and of an inactive subsidiary in dissolution. Those subsidiaries, and in some cases the Corporation, are defendants (among a number of defendants, often in excess of 50) in cases filed in various state and federal courts.

Asbestos Claims

The following table reflects approximate information about the claims for Asbestos Liability against the subsidiaries and the Corporation, along with certain asbestos claims asserted against the inactive subsidiary in dissolution, for the three months ended March 31, 2012:


Open claims at end of period		8,018	⁽¹⁾

Gross settlement and defense costs (in 000's)	$	4,853

Claims resolved		215

(1)

Included as "open claims" are approximately 1,663 claims classified in various jurisdictions as "inactive" or transferred to a state or federal judicial panel on multi-district litigation, commonly referred to as the MDL.

A substantial majority of the settlement and defense costs reflected in the above table were paid by insurers. Because claims are often filed and can be settled or dismissed in large groups, the amount and timing of settlements, as well as the number of open claims, can fluctuate significantly from period to period. In 2006, for the first time, a claim for Asbestos Liability against one of the Corporation's subsidiaries was tried to a jury. The trial resulted in a defense verdict. Plaintiffs appealed that verdict and in 2008 the California Court of Appeals reversed the jury verdict and remanded the case back to the trial court.

Asbestos Insurance

Certain of the Corporation's subsidiaries and the Corporation have an arrangement (the "Coverage Arrangement") with insurers responsible for historical primary and some first-layer excess insurance coverage for Asbestos Liability (the "Paying Insurers"). Under the Coverage Arrangement, the Paying Insurers accept financial responsibility, subject to the limits of the policies and based on fixed defense percentages and specified indemnity allocation formulas, for pending and future claims for Asbestos Liability. The claims against the Corporation's inactive subsidiary that is in dissolution proceedings, numbering approximately 300 as of March 31, 2012, are not included within the Coverage Arrangement. The Corporation believes that the claims against the inactive subsidiary in dissolution are immaterial.

The Coverage Arrangement includes an acknowledgement that Howden North America, Inc. ("Howden") is entitled to coverage under policies covering Asbestos Liability for claims arising out of the historical products manufactured or distributed by Buffalo Forge, a former subsidiary of the Corporation (the "Products"). The Coverage Arrangement does not provide for any prioritization on access to the applicable policies or monetary cap other than the limits of the policies, and, accordingly, Howden may access the policies at any time for any covered claim arising out of a Product. In general, access by Howden to the policies covering the Products will erode the coverage under the policies available to the Corporation and the relevant subsidiaries for Asbestos Liability alleged to arise out of not only the Products but also other historical products of the Corporation and its subsidiaries covered by the applicable policies.

On February 24, 2011, the Corporation and its Air & Liquid Systems Corporation subsidiary filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against thirteen domestic insurance companies, certain underwriters at Lloyd's, London and certain London market insurance companies, and Howden. The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment regarding the respective rights and obligations of the parties under excess insurance policies not included within the Coverage Arrangement that were issued to the Corporation from 1981 through 1984 as respects claims against the Corporation and its subsidiary for Asbestos Liability and as respects asbestos bodily-injury claims against Howden arising from the Products. Various counterclaims, cross claims and third party claims have been filed in the litigation.

Asbestos Valuations

In 2006, the Corporation retained Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Associates, Inc. ("HR&A"), a nationally recognized expert in the valuation of asbestos liabilities, to assist the Corporation in estimating the potential liability for pending and unasserted future claims for Asbestos Liability. HR&A was not requested to estimate asbestos claims against the inactive subsidiary in dissolution or the former division, which the Corporation believes are immaterial. Based on this analysis, the Corporation recorded a reserve for Asbestos Liability claims pending or projected to be asserted through 2013 as at December 31, 2006. HR&A's analysis was updated in 2008, and additional reserves were established by the Corporation as at December 31, 2008 for Asbestos Liability claims pending or projected to be asserted through 2018. HR&A's analysis was most recently updated in 2010, and additional reserves were established by the Corporation as at December 31, 2010 for Asbestos Liability claims pending or projected to be asserted through 2020. The methodology used by HR&A in its projection in 2010 of the operating subsidiaries' liability for pending and unasserted potential future claims for Asbestos Liability, which is substantially the same as the methodology employed by HR&A in the 2006 and 2008 estimates, relied upon and included the following factors:

•

HR&A's interpretation of a widely accepted forecast of the population likely to have been exposed to asbestos;

•

epidemiological studies estimating the number of people likely to develop asbestos-related diseases;

•

HR&A's analysis of the number of people likely to file an asbestos-related injury claim against the subsidiaries and the Corporation based on such epidemiological data and relevant claims history from January 1, 2008 to August 30, 2010;

•

an analysis of pending cases, by type of injury claimed and jurisdiction where the claim is filed;

•

an analysis of claims resolution history from January 1, 2008 to August 30, 2010 to determine the average settlement value of claims, by type of injury claimed and jurisdiction of filing; and

•

an adjustment for inflation in the future average settlement value of claims, at an annual inflation rate based on the Congressional Budget Office's ten year forecast of inflation.

Using this information, HR&A estimated in 2010 the number of future claims for Asbestos Liability that would be filed through the year 2020, as well as the settlement or indemnity costs that would be incurred to resolve both pending and future unasserted claims through 2020. This methodology has been accepted by numerous courts. For purposes of its consolidated financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2012, the Corporation reviewed its current Asbestos Liability and ultimately utilized the estimate by HR&A completed in 2010, as updated by the Corporation to reflect its Asbestos Liability expenditures through March 31, 2012.

In conjunction with developing the aggregate liability estimate referenced above, the Corporation also developed an estimate of probable insurance recoveries for its Asbestos Liabilities. In developing the estimate, the Corporation considered HR&A's projection for settlement or indemnity costs for Asbestos Liability and management's projection of associated defense costs (based on the current defense to indemnity cost ratio), as well as a number of additional factors. These additional factors included the Coverage Arrangement, self-insured retentions, policy exclusions, policy limits, policy provisions regarding coverage for defense costs, attachment points, prior impairment of policies and gaps in the coverage, policy exhaustions, insolvencies among certain of the insurance carriers, the nature of the underlying claims for Asbestos Liability asserted against the subsidiaries and the Corporation as reflected in the Corporation's asbestos claims database, as well as estimated erosion of insurance limits on account of claims against Howden arising out of the Products. In addition to consulting with the Corporation's outside legal counsel on these insurance matters, the Corporation retained in 2010 a nationally-recognized insurance consulting firm to assist the Corporation with certain policy allocation matters that also are among the several factors considered by the Corporation when analyzing potential recoveries from relevant historical insurance for Asbestos Liabilities. Based upon all of the factors considered by the Corporation, and taking into account the Corporation's analysis of publicly available information regarding the credit-worthiness of various insurers, the Corporation estimated the probable insurance recoveries for Asbestos Liability and defense costs through 2020. Although the Corporation believes that the assumptions employed in the insurance valuation were reasonable and previously consulted with its outside legal counsel and insurance consultant regarding those assumptions, there are other assumptions that could have been employed that would have resulted in materially lower insurance recovery projections.

Based on the analyses described above, the Corporation's reserve at December 31, 2010 for the total costs, including defense costs, for Asbestos Liability claims pending or projected to be asserted through 2020 was $218,303,000,of which approximately 85% was attributable to settlement costs for unasserted claims projected to be filed through 2020 and future defense costs. The reserve at March 31, 2012 was $192,799,000. While it is reasonably possible that the Corporation will incur additional charges for Asbestos Liability and defense costs in excess of the amounts currently reserved, the Corporation believes that there is too much uncertainty to provide for reasonable estimation of the number of future claims, the nature of such claims and the cost to resolve them beyond 2020. Accordingly, no reserve has been recorded for any costs that may be incurred after 2020.

The Corporation's receivable at December 31, 2010 for insurance recoveries attributable to the claims for which the Corporation's Asbestos Liability reserve has been established, including the portion of incurred defense costs covered by the Coverage Arrangement, and the probable payments and reimbursements relating to the estimated indemnity and defense costs for pending and unasserted future Asbestos Liability claims, was $141,839,000 ($122,843,000 as of March 31, 2012). The insurance receivable recorded by the Corporation does not assume any recovery from insolvent carriers, and substantially all of the insurance recoveries deemed probable were from insurance companies rated A – (excellent) or better by A.M. Best Corporation. There can be no assurance, however, that there will not be further insolvencies among the relevant insurance carriers, or that the assumed percentage recoveries for certain carriers will prove correct. The difference between insurance recoveries and projected costs is not due to exhaustion of all insurance coverage for Asbestos Liability. The Corporation and the subsidiaries have substantial additional insurance coverage which the Corporation expects to be available for Asbestos Liability claims and defense costs the subsidiaries and it may incur after 2020. However, this insurance coverage also can be expected to have gaps creating significant shortfalls of insurance recoveries as against claims expense, which could be material in future years.

The amounts recorded by the Corporation for Asbestos Liabilities and insurance receivables rely on assumptions that are based on currently known facts and strategy. The Corporation's actual expenses or insurance recoveries could be significantly higher or lower than those recorded if assumptions used in the Corporation's or HR&A's calculations vary significantly from actual results. Key variables in these assumptions are identified above and include the number and type of new claims to be filed each year, the average cost of disposing of each such new claim, average annual defense costs, the resolution of coverage issues with insurance carriers, and the solvency risk with respect to the relevant insurance carriers. Other factors that may affect the Corporation's Asbestos Liability and ability to recover under its insurance policies include uncertainties surrounding the litigation process from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and from case to case, reforms that may be made by state and federal courts, and the passage of state or federal tort reform legislation.

The Corporation intends to evaluate its estimated Asbestos Liability and related insurance receivables as well as the underlying assumptions on a regular basis to determine whether any adjustments to the estimates are required. Due to the uncertainties surrounding asbestos litigation and insurance, these regular reviews may result in the Corporation incurring future charges; however, the Corporation is currently unable to estimate such future charges. Adjustments, if any, to the Corporation's estimate of its recorded Asbestos Liability and/or insurance receivables could be material to operating results for the periods in which the adjustments to the liability or receivable are recorded, and to the Corporation's liquidity and consolidated financial position.