Commitments and Contingencies

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Note 12 – Commitments and Contingencies

Environmental & Legal

We are currently engaged in the following environmental and legal proceedings:

Voluntary Corrective Action Program

Our location in Rogers, Connecticut is part of the Connecticut Voluntary Corrective Action Program (VCAP). As part of this program, we partnered with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) to determine the corrective actions to be taken at the site related to contamination issues. We evaluated this matter and completed internal due diligence work related to the site in the fourth quarter of 2015. Remediation activities on the site are ongoing and are recorded as reductions to the accrual as they are incurred. We have incurred aggregate remediation costs of $1.4 million through December 31, 2019, and the accrual for future remediation efforts is $1.5 million.

Asbestos

Overview

We, like many other industrial companies, have been named as a defendant in a number of lawsuits filed in courts across the country by persons alleging personal injury from exposure to products containing asbestos. We have never mined, milled, manufactured or marketed asbestos; rather, we made and provided to industrial users a limited number of products that contained encapsulated asbestos, but we stopped manufacturing these products in the late 1980s. Most of the claims filed against us involve numerous defendants, sometimes as many as several hundred.

The following table summarizes the change in number of asbestos claims outstanding during 2019 and 2018:



	2019		2018
Claims outstanding as of January 1	745		687
New claims filed	251		275
Pending claims concluded*	(404	)	(217	)
Claims outstanding as of December 31	592		745

* For the year ended December 31, 2019, 373 claims were dismissed and 31 claims were settled. For the year ended December 31, 2018, 192 claims were dismissed and 25 claims were settled. Settlements totaled approximately $5.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2019, compared to $7.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2018.

Impacts on Financial Statements

We recognize a liability for asbestos-related contingencies that are probable of occurrence and reasonably estimable. In connection with the recognition of liabilities for asbestos-related matters, we record asbestos-related insurance receivables that are deemed probable.

The liability projection period covers all current and future indemnity and defense costs through 2064, which represents the expected end of our asbestos liability exposure with no further ongoing claims expected beyond that date. This conclusion was based on

our history and experience with the claims data, the diminished volatility and consistency of observable claims data, the period of time that has elapsed since we stopped manufacturing products that contained encapsulated asbestos and an expected downward trend in claims due to the average age of our claimants, which is approaching the average life expectancy.

To date, the indemnity and defense costs of our asbestos-related product liability litigation have been substantially covered by insurance. Although we have exhausted coverage under some of our insurance policies, we believe that we have applicable primary, excess and/or umbrella coverage for claims arising with respect to most of the years during which we manufactured and marketed asbestos-containing products. In addition, we have entered into a cost sharing agreement with most of our primary, excess and umbrella insurance carriers to facilitate the ongoing administration and payment of claims covered by the carriers. The cost sharing agreement may be terminated by any party, but will continue until a party elects to terminate it. As of the filing date for this report, the agreement has not been terminated, and no carrier had informed us it intended to terminate the agreement. We expect to continue to exhaust individual primary, excess and umbrella coverages over time, and there is no assurance that such exhaustion will not accelerate due to additional claims, damages and settlements or that coverage will be available as expected. We are responsible for uninsured indemnity and defense costs, and for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, we paid $0.7 million and $1.2 million, respectively, related to such costs.

The amounts recorded for the asbestos-related liability and the related insurance receivables are based on facts known at the time and a number of assumptions. However, projecting future events, such as the number of new claims to be filed each year, the average cost of disposing of such claims, the length of time it takes to dispose of such claims, coverage issues among insurers and the continuing solvency of various insurance companies, as well as the numerous uncertainties surrounding asbestos litigation in the U.S., could cause the actual liability and insurance recoveries for us to be higher or lower than those projected or recorded.

Changes recorded in the estimated liability and estimated insurance recovery based on the projections of asbestos litigation and corresponding insurance coverage, result in the recognition of expense or income. For the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017, we recognized expense of $1.7 million, $0.7 million and $3.4 million, respectively. The increase in expense in 2019 compared to 2018 was due to an unfavorable change in the defense cost assumptions and the inclusion of non-mesothelioma cases in the cost projections, partially offset by a corresponding favorable change in our insurance recovery expectations. The higher expense recognized in 2017 was primarily attributable to the change in the forecast period from 10 years to 40 years, partially offset by a corresponding favorable change in our insurance recovery expectations.

Our projected asbestos-related claims and insurance receivables were as follows:



	As of December 31,
(Dollars in millions)	2019		2018
Asbestos-related liabilities	$	85.9	$	70.3
Asbestos-related insurance receivables	$	78.3	$	63.8

General

In addition to the above issues, the nature and scope of our business brings us in regular contact with the general public and a variety of businesses and government agencies. Such activities inherently subject us to the possibility of litigation, including environmental and product liability matters that are defended and handled in the ordinary course of business. We have established accruals for matters for which management considers a loss to be probable and reasonably estimable. It is the opinion of management that facts known at the present time do not indicate that such litigation will have a material adverse impact on our results of operations, financial position or cash flows.