NOTE 17 – LITIGATION:

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 subsidiary (“Asbestos Liability”) and of an inactive subsidiary in dissolution. During 2013, all pending claims against the inactive subsidiary in dissolution were settled, dismissed or barred and the dissolution court issued a final order thereby concluding the dissolution proceedings. 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 for the two years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013 (2013 includes asbestos claims asserted against the inactive subsidiary in dissolution):


	2014			2013
Total claims pending at the beginning of the period		8,319			8,007
New claims served		1,466			1,432
Claims dismissed		(1,094	)		(803	)
Claims settled		(234	)		(317	)
Total claims pending at the end of the period ⁽¹⁾		8,457			8,319
Gross settlement and defense costs (in 000’s)	$	20,801		$	22,618
Average gross settlement and defense costs per claim resolved (in 000’s)	$	15.66		$	20.19

(1)

Included as “open claims” are approximately 1,647 and 1,636 claims in 2014 and 2013, respectively, 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 was reported and 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.

Asbestos Insurance

The Corporation and its Air & Liquid subsidiary are parties to a series of settlement agreements (“Settlement Agreements”) with insurers that have coverage obligations for Asbestos Liability (the “Settling Insurers”). Under the Settlement Agreements, the Settling Insurers accept financial responsibility, subject to the terms and conditions of the respective agreements, including overall coverage limits, for pending and future claims for Asbestos Liability. The Settlement Agreements encompass the substantial majority of insurance policies that provide coverage for claims for Asbestos Liability.

The Settlement Agreements include acknowledgements 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 Settlement Agreements do not provide for any prioritization on access to the applicable policies or any sublimits of liability as to Howden or the Corporation and Air & Liquid, and, accordingly, Howden may access the coverage afforded by the Settling Insurers for any covered claim arising out of a Product. In general, access by Howden to the coverage afforded by the Settling Insurers for the Products will erode coverage under the Settlement Agreements available to the Corporation and Air & Liquid for Asbestos Liability.

On February 24, 2011, the Corporation and Air & Liquid 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 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. The Corporation and Air & Liquid have reached Settlement Agreements with all but two of the defendant insurers in the coverage action. Those Settlement Agreements specify the terms and conditions upon which the insurer parties are to contribute to defense and indemnity costs for claims for Asbestos Liability. One of the Settlement Agreements entered into by the Corporation and Air & Liquid also provided for the dismissal of claims, without prejudice, regarding two upper-level excess policies issued by one of the insurers. The Court has entered Orders dismissing all claims in the action filed against each other by the Corporation and Air & Liquid, on the one hand, and by the settling insurers, on the other. Howden also reached an agreement with eight domestic insurers addressing asbestos-related bodily injury claims arising from the Products, and claims as to those insurers and Howden have been dismissed. Various counterclaims, cross claims and third party claims have been filed in the litigation and remain pending although only two domestic insurers and Howden remain in the litigation as to the Corporation and Air & Liquid. On September 27, 2013, the Court issued a memorandum opinion and order granting in part and denying in part cross motions for summary judgment filed by the Corporation and Air & Liquid, Howden, and the insurer parties still in the litigation. The September 27, 2013 ruling is not a final ruling for appellate purposes, but when final it could be appealed by the parties to the litigation. At a hearing on January 13, 2015, the Court ruled that final judgment in accordance with the Court’s prior rulings will be entered in the case. Upon entry of final judgment, the Corporation, Air & Liquid, certain insurers, and Howden may appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

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, 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 of December 31, 2006. HR&A’s analysis has been periodically updated since that time. Most recently, the HR&A analysis was updated in 2014, and additional reserves were established by the Corporation as of December 31, 2014 for Asbestos Liability claims pending or projected to be asserted through 2024. The methodology used by HR&A in its projection in 2014 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 prior 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, 2012 to December 8, 2014;

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, 2012 to December 8, 2014 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 2014 the number of future claims for Asbestos Liability that would be filed through the year 2024, as well as the settlement or indemnity costs that would be incurred to resolve both pending and future unasserted claims through 2024. This methodology has been accepted by numerous courts.

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 Settlement Agreements then in effect, 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, and 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 consulted with a nationally-recognized insurance consulting firm it retained 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 2024. 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, 2014 for the total costs, including defense costs, for Asbestos Liability claims pending or projected to be asserted through 2024 was $189,048 of which approximately 64% was attributable to settlement costs for unasserted claims projected to be filed through 2024 and future defense costs. 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 2024. Accordingly, no reserve has been recorded for any costs that may be incurred after 2024.

The Corporation’s receivable at December 31, 2014 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 Settlement Agreements in effect through December 31, 2014, and the probable payments and reimbursements relating to the estimated indemnity and defense costs for pending and unasserted future Asbestos Liability claims, was $140,651

The following table summarizes activity relating to insurance recoveries for each of the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013.


	2014			2013
Insurance receivable – asbestos, beginning of the year	$	110,741		$	118,115
Settlement and defense costs paid by insurance carriers		(17,159	)		(23,714	)
Changes in estimated coverage		47,069			16,340
Insurance receivable – asbestos, end of the year	$	140,651		$	110,741

The insurance receivable recorded by the Corporation does not assume any recovery from insolvent carriers and a substantial majority of the insurance recoveries deemed probable was 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 that the subsidiaries and it may incur after 2024. 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, compliance by relevant parties with the terms of the Settlement Agreements, the resolution of remaining 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.