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Commitments and Contingencies | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2013
Commitments And Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
Commitments and Contingencies |
12. | COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
Legal Matters On January 19, 2009, a purported class action case was commenced against the Company in the Superior Court of California, Santa Cruz County, by the lead law firm of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP and certain other law firms (the “Lieff Cabraser Group”) on behalf of Eric Ross and Bradley S. Hureth and similarly situated plaintiffs. These plaintiffs generally alleged certain defects in the Company’s products, and that the Company failed to provide adequate remedies for defective products. On February 13, 2009, the Company removed this case to the United States District Court, Northern District of California. On January 21, 2009, a purported class action case was commenced against the Company in the United States District Court, Western District of Washington by the law firm of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP (“Hagens Berman”) on behalf of Mark Okano and similarly situated plaintiffs, generally alleging certain product defects in the Company’s products, and that the Company failed to provide adequate remedies for defective products. This case was transferred by the Washington Court to the California Court as a related case to the Lieff Cabraser Group’s case. On July 30, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California preliminarily approved a settlement of the claims of the lawsuit commenced by the Lieff Cabraser Group involving surface flaking of the Company’s product, and on March 15, 2010, it granted final approval of the settlement. On March 25, 2010, the Lieff Cabraser Group amended its complaint to add claims relating to alleged defects in the Company’s products and alleged misrepresentations relating to mold growth. Hagens Berman alleged similar claims in its original complaint. In its Final Order approving the surface flaking settlement, the District Court consolidated these pending actions relating to the mold claims, and appointed Hagens Berman as lead counsel in this case. On December 3, 2010, Hagens Berman filed an amended consolidated complaint in the United States District Court, Northern District of California relating to the mold growth claims (now on behalf of Dean Mahan and other named plaintiffs). On December 15, 2010, a purported class action case was commenced against the Company in the United States District Court, Western District of Kentucky, by Cohen & Malad, LLP (“Cohen & Malad”) on behalf of Richard Levin and similarly situated plaintiffs in Kentucky, and on June 13, 2011, a purported class action was commenced against the Company in the Marion Circuit/Superior Court of Indiana by Cohen & Malad on behalf of Ellen Kopetsky and similarly situated plaintiffs in Indiana. On June 28, 2011, the Company removed the Kopetsky case to the United States District Court, Southern District of Indiana. (On September 3, 2013, the two lawsuits commenced by Cohen & Malad were settled.) On August 11, 2011, a purported class action was commenced against the Company in the 50 th Circuit Court for the County of Chippewa, Michigan on behalf of Joel and Lori Peffers and similarly situated plaintiffs in Michigan. On August 26, 2011, the Company removed the Peffers case to the United States District Court, Western District of Michigan. On April 4, 2012, a purported class action was commenced against the Company in Superior Court of New Jersey, Essex County by the lead law firm of Stull, Stull & Brody (the “Stull Group”) on behalf of Caryn Borger, M.D. and similarly situated plaintiffs in New Jersey. On May 1, 2012, the Company removed the Borger case to the United States District Court, District of New Jersey. (On December 5, 2013, the lawsuit commenced by the Stull Group was settled.) The plaintiffs in these purported class actions alleged certain defects in the Company’s products and alleged misrepresentations relating to mold growth. On April 5, 2013, the Company signed a settlement agreement with Hagens Berman that settled the case pending in the United States District Court, Northern District of California on a nationwide basis, and the parties filed for preliminary approval of such settlement (the “nationwide settlement”). The material terms of the nationwide settlement, as amended by an amended settlement agreement signed on September 3, 2013, are as follows:
| • |  | Trex will make a one-time cash payment or the opportunity to receive other relief, including a rebate certificate on its newer-generation shelled product (Trex Transcend® and Trex Enhance®). This relief would be available for any consumer whose first-generation composite decking product has a certain defined level of mold growth, color fading or color variation.
| • |  | Trex agreed to discontinue the manufacture of non-shelled decking, railing and fencing products (other than Trex Traditional Railing and Trex Seclusions Fencing) by December 31, 2013.
| • |  | Trex agreed to provide a video demonstrating cleaning instructions for non-shelled products on its website, and to distribute warranty pads to retailers.
| • |  | The cost to Trex is capped at $8.25 million plus $1.45 million in attorneys’ fees to be paid to the Plaintiffs’ counsel upon final approval of the nationwide settlement by the Court.
The settlement agreement provides that the nationwide settlement applies to any Trex first-generation non-shelled composite decking, railing and fencing product purchased between August 1, 2004 and the date of preliminary approval of the nationwide settlement. On August 27, 2013, the Court entered an Order granting preliminary approval of the settlement agreement and on December 16, 2013, the Court granted final approval of the settlement. As of December 31, 2013, the Company has accrued a $3.2 million liability related to this litigation. It is reasonably possible that the Company may incur costs in excess of the recorded amounts; however, the Company expects that the total net cost to resolve the lawsuit will not exceed approximately $10 million. The Company has other lawsuits, as well as other claims, pending against it which are ordinary routine litigation and claims incidental to the business. Management has evaluated the merits of these other lawsuits and claims, and believes that their ultimate resolution will not have a material effect on the Company’s consolidated financial condition, results of operations, liquidity or competitive position. Purchase Commitments The Company fulfills requirements for raw materials under both purchase orders and supply contracts. In the year ended December 31, 2013, the Company purchased substantially all of its waste wood fiber requirements under purchase orders, which do not involve long-term supply commitments. Substantially all of the Company’s polyethylene (“PE material”) purchases are under short-term supply contracts that average approximately two years, for which pricing is negotiated as needed. The waste wood and PE material supply contracts generally provide that the Company is obligated to purchase all of the waste wood or PE material a supplier provides, if the waste wood or PE material meets certain specifications. The amount of waste wood and PE material the Company is required to purchase under these contracts varies with the production of its suppliers and, accordingly, is not fixed or determinable. As of December 31, 2013, the Company has purchase commitments under raw material supply contracts of $19.2 million, $8.6 million, $1.5 million and $49 thousand for the years ending December 31, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. The Company outsources the production of certain products to third-party manufacturers under supply contracts that commit the Company to purchase minimum levels for each year extending through 2015. The Company has purchase commitments under the third-party manufacturing contracts of $4.4 million and $1.9 million for the years ending December 31, 2014 and 2015, respectively. Contract Termination Costs In anticipation of relocating its corporate headquarters, the Company entered into a lease agreement in 2005. The Company reconsidered and decided not to move its headquarters. The lease obligates the Company to lease 55,047 square feet of office space through June 30, 2019. As of December 31, 2013, the Company has executed subleases for 41,701 square feet of the leased space and is currently marketing the remaining portion of the space to find a suitable tenant. The Company estimates that the present value of the estimated future sublease receipts, net of transaction costs, will be less than the Company’s remaining minimum lease payment obligations under its lease and has recorded a liability for the expected shortfall. During the three months ended September 30, 2013, a subtenant defaulted on its sublease payments. As a result, the Company revised its estimate of sublease receipts and recorded a $1.1 million charge to selling, general and administrative expenses to increase its liability. To estimate future sublease receipts for the periods beyond the term of the existing subleases, the Company has assumed that the existing subleases will be renewed or new subleases will be executed at rates consistent with rental rates in the current subleases or estimated market rates. However, management cannot be certain that the timing of future subleases or the rental rates contained in future subleases will not differ from current estimates. Factors such as the availability of commercial office space, poor economic conditions and subtenant preferences will influence the terms achieved in future subleases. The inability to sublet the office space in the future or unfavorable changes to key management assumptions used in the estimate of the future sublease receipts may result in material charges to selling, general and administrative expenses in future periods. As of December 31, 2013, the minimum payments remaining under the Company’s lease over the years ending December 31, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 are $1.7 million, $1.7 million, $1.8 million, $1.8 million and $1.8 million, respectively, and $0.9 million thereafter. The minimum receipts remaining under the Company’s existing subleases over the years ending December 31, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 are $1.3 million, $0.8 million, $0.7 million, $0.7 million and $0.7 million, respectively, and $0.4 million thereafter. The following table provides information about the Company’s liability under the lease (in thousands):
|  | 2013 |  |  | 2012 |
Balance as of January 1, |  | $ | 1,103 |  |  | $ | 452 |
Net rental receipts (payments) |  |  | (558 | ) |  |  | (115 | )
Accretion of discount |  |  | 98 |  |  |  | 39 |
Increase in net estimated contract termination costs |  |  | 1,144 |  |  |  | 727 |
Balance as of December 31, |  | $ | 1,787 |  |  | $ | 1,103 |
Product Warranty The Company warrants that its products will be free from material defects in workmanship and materials. This warranty generally extends for a period of 25 years for residential use and 10 years for commercial use. (With respect to TrexTrim™ and Trex Reveal® Railing, the warranty period is 25 years for both residential and commercial use.) With respect to the Company’s Transcend®, Enhance®, Select® and Universal Fascia product, the Company further warrants that the product will not fade in color more than a certain amount and will be resistant to permanent staining from food substances or mold (provided the stain is cleaned within seven days of appearance). This warranty extends for a period of 25 years for residential use and 10 years for commercial use. If there is a breach of such warranties, the Company has an obligation either to replace the defective product or refund the purchase price. Historically, the Company has not had material numbers of claims submitted or settled under the provisions of its product warranties, with the exception of claims related to material produced at its Nevada facility prior to 2007 that exhibits surface flaking. The Company continues to receive and settle surface flaking claims and maintains a warranty reserve to provide for the settlement of these claims. In 2009, the Company agreed to a settlement of a class action lawsuit covering the surface defect, stipulating its responsibilities with regard to such claims. Estimating the warranty reserve for surface flaking claims requires management to estimate (1) the average cost to settle each claim and (2) the number of claims to be settled with payment, both of which are subject to variables that are difficult to estimate. The cost per claim varies due to a number of factors, including the size of affected decks, the type of replacement material used, the cost of production of replacement material and the method of claim settlement. Although the cost per claim does vary, it is less volatile and more predictable than the number of claims to be settled with payment, which is inherently uncertain. The key component driving the Company’s potential liability is the number of claims that will ultimately require payment. To estimate the number of future paid claims, the Company utilizes actuarial techniques to quantify both the expected number of claims to be received and the percentage of those claims that will ultimately require payment. Estimates for both of these elements (number and percentage of claims that will ultimately require payment) are quantified using a range of assumptions derived from the recent claim count history and the identification of factors influencing the claim counts, including the downward trend in received claims due to the passage of time since production of the suspect material. For each of the various parameters used in the analysis, the assumed values in the actuarial valuation produce results that represent the Company’s best estimate for the ultimate number of claims to be settled with payment. A number of factors make estimates of the number of claims to be received inherently uncertain. The Company believes that production of the suspect material was confined to material produced from its Nevada facility prior to 2007, but is unable to determine the amount of suspect material produced or the exact time it takes for surface flaking to become evident in the suspect material and materialize as a claim. Furthermore, the aforementioned 2009 class action settlement and related public notices led to a significant increase in claims received in 2009 and disrupted the claims data and settlement patterns. Lastly, the Company is not aware of any analogous industry data that might be referenced in predicting future claims to be received. The number of surface flaking claims received peaked in 2009 in conjunction with the class action settlement and related public notices and the trend of claims received began to decline significantly in 2010 and 2011, consistent with the Company’s belief that the effect of the 2009 spike in claims was largely an acceleration of claims previously expected to be filed in future periods. As a result of the effects of the class action settlement and because the suspect material had not been produced since prior to 2007, the Company anticipated that the rate of decline in claims received would accelerate and the number of claims received would continue to decline significantly in 2012. The Company monitors surface flaking claims activity each quarter for indications that its estimate of the number of claims expected requires revision. Due to extensive use of decks during the summer outdoor season, variance to annual claims expectations is typically observed during the latter part of the Company’s fiscal year. During the third quarter of 2012, based on an analysis of additional claims activity, the Company observed that the actual rate of decline in claims received in 2012 would fall short of its anticipated rate of decline. As a result, the Company revised its estimate of the future claims to be received to reflect a rate of decline that incorporated levels experienced in 2012. Although the number of claims expected to be received continued to decline each year, the effect of reducing the anticipated rate of decline increased the total number of claims expected in future years. As a result of these changes in estimate, the Company recorded an increase to the warranty reserve of $20 million during the three months ended September 30, 2012. During the third quarter of 2013, the number of claims received was significantly greater than the Company’s prior estimates. Although the number of claims received during the first nine months of 2013 remained lower than those received during the first nine months of 2012, the number of claims received during the third quarter of 2013 exceeded those received during the third quarter of 2012. This represented the first quarterly year-over-year increase in the number of claims received since the 2009 class action settlement was made public. The Company believes that this unexpected increase in claims was due primarily to a response to communications made by the Company in July 2013 informing homeowners of potential hazards associated with decking products exhibiting surface flaking that are not timely replaced. These communications included a public press release and over 10,000 letters sent to homeowners that previously filed surface flaking claims. In addition to contributing to the increase in new claims received, these communications resulted in the reopening of a significant number of claims previously closed. Furthermore, although not directly related to the surface flaking issue, in August 2013, the United States District Court, Northern District of California granted preliminary approval of a settlement agreement related to cases in which plaintiffs generally alleged certain defects in the Company’s products and alleged misrepresentations relating to mold growth. The Company believes that public notices made subsequent to the Court approval increased homeowner awareness of product-related issues and contributed to the increased number of surface flaking claims received during the third quarter of 2013. As a result of these public communications, the Company expects to experience elevated claims activity, both in new claims received and reopened claims, for the near future, after which it expects a return to previously-experienced rates of decline. However, the elevated claims activity resulted in a material increase in the expected number of claims to settle with payment. In addition to the increased number of expected claims to be settled with payment, the Company has experienced an increase in the average cost to settle a claim during 2013. Analysis of claims data indicates that the increased cost per claim is driven primarily by an increase in the average size of settled claims, which the Company believes reflects a shift from partial deck replacements to full deck replacements. Also, the Company’s August 2013 decision to discontinue production of the Accents® product, which is currently used as replacement material for surface flaking claims, necessitated a change in the average cost expectations due to the implications of transitioning to alternative replacement material. Due to the unfavorable claims and cost experience during the three months ended September 30, 2013, as described above, the Company recorded a $20 million increase to the warranty reserve. The Company’s analysis is based on currently known facts and a number of assumptions. Projecting future events such as the number of claims to be received, the number of claims that will require payment and the average cost of claims could cause the actual warranty liabilities to be higher or lower than those projected which could materially affect the Company’s financial condition, results of operations or cash flow. The Company estimates that the number of claims received will decline over time. If the level of claims received does not diminish consistent with its expectations or if the cost to settle claims increases, it could result in additional increases to the warranty reserve and reduced earnings and cash flows in future periods. The Company estimates that a 10% change in the expected number of remaining claims to be settled with payment or the expected cost to settle claims may result in approximately a $4.1 million change in the warranty reserve. The following is a reconciliation of the Company’s warranty reserve (in thousands):
|  | 2013 |  |  | 2012 |
Beginning balance, January 1 |  | $ | 28,987 |  |  | $ | 16,345 |
Changes in estimates related to pre-existing warranties |  |  | 20,000 |  |  |  | 21,487 |
Settlements made during the period |  |  | (8,175 | ) |  |  | (8,845 | )
Ending balance, December 31 |  | $ | 40,812 |  |  | $ | 28,987 |

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