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Litigation And Contingencies | 3 Months Ended
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Mar. 31, 2016
Litigation And Contingencies [Abstract] |
Litigation And Contingencies | Litigation and Contingencies The Company is involved in legal proceedings in the ordinary course of its business. These proceedings include claims for damages arising out of use of the Company’s products, allegations of infringement of intellectual property, commercial disputes and employment matters, as well as environmental matters. Some of the legal proceedings include claims for punitive as well as compensatory damages, and certain proceedings may purport to be class actions. The Company, using current product sales data and historical trends, actuarially calculates the estimate of its exposure for product liability. The Company had product liability reserves of $40.9 million and $41.2 million as of March 31, 2016 and December 31, 2015, respectively. The Company is insured for product liability claims for amounts in excess of established deductibles and accrues for the estimated liability as described up to the limits of the deductibles. All other claims and lawsuits are handled on a case-by-case basis. Recall of Harness Buckles on Select Car Seats In February 2014, Graco, a subsidiary of the Company, announced a voluntary recall in the U.S. of harness buckles used on approximately 4 million toddler car seats manufactured between 2006 and 2013. In July 2014, Graco announced that it had agreed to expand the recall to include certain infant car seats manufactured between July 2010 and May 2013. There have been no reported injuries associated with the recalled harness buckles used on these toddler or infant car seats. In December 2014, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) announced an investigation into the timeliness of the recall, and in March 2015, the investigation concluded with Graco entering into a consent order with NHTSA pursuant to which Graco committed to spend $7.0 million in total over a five-year period to enhance child passenger safety and make a $3.0 million payment to NHTSA, which was paid in the three months ended June 30, 2015. With respect to the $7.0 million required to be spent over five years, the Company has spent approximately $1.1 million to date. The Company recorded the $10.0 million of costs associated with the consent order in the three months ended March 31, 2015. Legal Matters A putative class action lawsuit (Vincent A. Hirsch v. James E. Lillie, Martin E. Franklin, Ian G.H. Ashken, Michael S. Gross, Robert L. Wood, Irwin D. Simon, William P. Lauder, Ros L’esperance, Peter A. Hochfelder, Newell Rubbermaid Inc., NCPF Acquisition Corp. I and NCPF Acquisition Corp. II, Case No. 9:16-CV-80258 (United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida)) was filed on February 24, 2016, purportedly on behalf of Jarden shareholders against the individually named director defendants, who are directors of Jarden. The Company and its subsidiaries NCPF Acquisition Corp. I and NCPF Acquisition Corp. II are also named as defendants. The Complaint alleges claims under § 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”); SEC Rule 14a-9 against all defendants; and Section 20(a) of the Exchange Act against the individual director defendants. Plaintiff alleges that the joint proxy/prospectus of the Company and Jarden concerning the proposed merger contemplated by the Merger Agreement omitted certain information. The parties have entered into a settlement term sheet, pursuant to which the Company added certain disclosures to its Registration Statement on Form S-4. Subject to court approval of the settlement agreement and the lead plaintiff and lead counsel, the shareholder claims will be released, and the defendants will reimburse up to $0.6 million in attorney fees. A second putative class action lawsuit (Jessica Paree v. Martin E. Franklin, et al (Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial District in and for Palm Beach County, Florida)) was filed on March 10, 2016, purportedly on behalf of Jarden stockholders, against the individually named director defendants, all of whom are directors of Jarden. The Company and two of its subsidiaries are also named as defendants. The complaint generally alleges that the director defendants breached their fiduciary duties owed to Jarden stockholders regarding the merger consideration agreed to and the process undertaken by the director defendants in connection with the Jarden transaction, and that the Company and two of its subsidiaries aided and abetted such breaches. Plaintiff further alleges that defendants have (i) solicited stockholder action pursuant to a materially false and misleading joint proxy statement/prospectus, (ii) failed to include all material information concerning the unfair sales process that resulted in the merger transactions, and (iii) materially omitted certain information related to the financial analyses performed by Jarden’s financial advisor. Plaintiff seeks, among other things, preliminary and permanent injunctive relief enjoining the merger transactions, rescission or rescissory damages in the event the Jarden transaction is consummated, an award of attorneys’ and experts’ fees and costs, and a direction from the court that Jarden’s individual board members account for all damages allegedly suffered as a result of their alleged wrongdoing. On March 28, 2016, the parties filed an Agreed Joint Motion to Stay Proceedings, seeking a stay of the litigation, pending the outcome of the above described Hirsch v. Lillie action. The court entered an order staying the proceedings on March 31, 2016, and ordered the parties to provide an update to the court on the status of the federal action by June 30, 2016. Jarden Acquisition Under the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”), any Jarden stockholder who did not vote in favor of adoption of the Merger Agreement, and otherwise complies with the provisions of Section 262 of the DGCL, is entitled to seek an appraisal of its shares of Jarden common stock by the Delaware Chancery Court as provided under Section 262 of the DGCL. As of April 15, 2016 (the date of the Jarden stockholder meeting), dissenting stockholders collectively holding approximately 11.5 million shares of Jarden common stock have delivered to Jarden a written demand for appraisal. The fair value of the Jarden common shares, as determined by the court, could be lower or higher than and/or may include a greater amount of cash than the merger consideration to which such Jarden stockholder would have been entitled under the Merger Agreement. Environmental Matters The Company is involved in various matters concerning federal and state environmental laws and regulations, including matters in which the Company has been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“U.S. EPA”) and certain state environmental agencies as a potentially responsible party (“PRP”) at contaminated sites under the Federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA”) and equivalent state laws. In assessing its environmental response costs, the Company has considered several factors, including the extent of the Company’s volumetric contribution at each site relative to that of other PRPs; the kind of waste; the terms of existing cost sharing and other applicable agreements; the financial ability of other PRPs to share in the payment of requisite costs; the Company’s prior experience with similar sites; environmental studies and cost estimates available to the Company; the effects of inflation on cost estimates; and the extent to which the Company’s, and other parties’, status as PRPs is disputed. The Company’s estimate of environmental response costs associated with these matters as of March 31, 2016 ranged between $23.2 million and $29.1 million. As of March 31, 2016, the Company had a reserve of $24.9 million for such environmental remediation and response costs in the aggregate, which is included in other accrued liabilities and other noncurrent liabilities in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet. No insurance recovery was taken into account in determining the Company’s cost estimates or reserves, nor do the Company’s cost estimates or reserves reflect any discounting for present value purposes, except with respect to certain long-term operations and maintenance CERCLA matters, which are estimated at their present value of $17.6 million by applying a 5% discount rate to undiscounted obligations of $24.7 million. U.S. EPA has issued General Notice Letters (“GNLs”) to over 100 entities, including the Company and Berol Corporation, a subsidiary of the Company, alleging that they are PRPs at the Diamond Alkali Superfund Site, which includes a 17-mile stretch of the Lower Passaic River and its tributaries. 72 of the GNL recipients, including the Company on behalf of itself and its subsidiaries, Goody Products, Inc. and Berol Corporation (the “Company Parties”), have taken over the performance of the remedial investigation (“RI”) and feasibility study (“FS”) for the Lower Passaic River. On April 11, 2014, while work on the RI/FS remained underway, U.S. EPA issued a Source Control Early Action Focused Feasibility Study (“FFS”), which proposed four alternatives for remediation of the lower 8.3 miles of the Lower Passaic River. U.S. EPA’s cost estimates for its cleanup alternatives ranged from $315.0 million to approximately $3.2 billion in capital costs plus from $0.5 million to $1.8 million in annual maintenance costs for 30 years, with its preferred alternative carrying an estimated cost of approximately $1.7 billion plus an additional $1.6 million in annual maintenance costs for 30 years. In February 2015, the participating parties submitted to the U.S. EPA a draft RI, followed by submission of a draft FS in April 2015. The draft FS sets forth various alternatives for remediating the lower 17 miles of the Passaic River, ranging from a “no action” alternative, to targeted remediation of locations along the entire lower 17 mile stretch of the river, to remedial actions consistent with U.S. EPA’s preferred alternative as set forth in the FFS for the lower 8.3 miles coupled with monitored natural recovery and targeted remediation in the upper 9 miles.The estimated cost estimates for these alternatives range from approximately $28.0 million to $2.7 billion, including related operation maintenance and monitoring costs. The draft RI/FS remains under review by U.S. EPA. U.S. EPA issued its final Record of Decision for the lower 8.3 miles of the Lower Passaic (the “ROD”) in March 2016, which, in the language of the document, finalizes as the selected remedy the preferred alternative set forth in the FFS, which U.S. EPA estimates will cost $1.38 billion. Subsequent to the release of the ROD in March 2016, U.S. EPA issued GNLs for the lower 8.3 miles of the Passaic River (the “2016 GNL”) to numerous entities, apparently including all previous recipients of the initial GNL as well as several additional entities. As with the initial GNL, the Company and Berol Corporation were among the recipients of the 2016 GNL. The 2016 GNL states that U.S. EPA would like to determine whether one entity, Occidental Chemical Corporation (“OCC”), will voluntarily perform the remedial design for the selected remedy for the lower 8.3 miles, and that following execution of an agreement for the remedial design, U.S. EPA plans to begin negotiation of a remedial action consent decree, “under which OCC and the other major PRPs will implement and/or pay for EPA’s selected remedy for the lower 8.3 miles of the Lower Passaic River and reimburse EPA’s costs incurred for the Lower Passaic River.” The letter “encourage[s] the major PRPs to meet and discuss a workable approach to sharing responsibility for implementation and funding of the remedy" without indicating who may be the “major PRPs.” Finally, U.S. EPA states that it “believes that some of the parties that have been identified as PRPs under CERCLA, and some parties not yet named as PRPs, may be eligible for a cash out settlement with EPA for the lower 8.3 miles of the Lower Passaic River. EPA intends to provide separate notice of the opportunity to discuss a cash out settlement at a later date.” Thus, at this time, it is unclear how the cost of any cleanup would be allocated among any of the parties, including the Company Parties or any other entities. The site is also subject to a Natural Resource Damage Assessment. Given the uncertainties pertaining to this matter, including that U.S. EPA is still reviewing the draft RI and FS, that no framework for or agreement on allocation for the investigation and ultimate remediation has been developed, and that there exists the potential for further litigation regarding costs and cost sharing, the extent to which the Company Parties may be held liable or responsible is not yet known. Accordingly, it is not possible at this time for the Company to estimate its ultimate liability related to this matter. Based on currently known facts and circumstances, the Company does not believe that this matter is reasonably likely to have a material impact on the Company’s results of operations, including, among other factors, because the Company Parties’ facilities are not even alleged to have discharged the contaminants which are of the greatest concern in the river sediments, and because there are numerous other parties who will likely share in any costs of remediation and/or damages. However, in the event of one or more adverse determinations related to this matter, it is possible that the ultimate liability resulting from this matter and the impact on the Company’s results of operations could be material. Because of the uncertainties associated with environmental investigations and response activities, the possibility that the Company could be identified as a PRP at sites identified in the future that require the incurrence of environmental response costs and the possibility that sites acquired in business combinations may require environmental response costs, actual costs to be incurred by the Company may vary from the Company’s estimates. Clean Air Act Labeling Matter In April 2015, the Company became aware that two beverage container products, one product of its recently acquired bubba brands business and one product of its recently acquired Ignite business, contained closed cell rigid polyurethane foam insulation that was blown with HCFC-141b, which is listed as a Class II ozone-depleting substance under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. Under the Clean Air Act and U.S. EPA’s regulations promulgated thereunder, as of January 1, 2015, certain products made with or containing ozone depleting substances, including HCFC-141b, must bear a specific warning label. The Company discovered that the affected products imported in early 2015 did not display the required label. While the affected product lines were not compliant with applicable environmental regulations regarding ozone depleting substances, use of the products is safe and poses no risk to consumers. Upon discovery, the Company self-reported the violations to the U.S. EPA and replaced the blowing agent in the products. The Company is in the process of negotiating a settlement with U.S. EPA which would include payment of a penalty; although settlement negotiations are at an early stage, the Company does not expect that the penalty will exceed $110,000. Other Matters Although management of the Company cannot predict the ultimate outcome of these proceedings with certainty, it believes that the ultimate resolution of the Company’s proceedings, including any amounts it may be required to pay in excess of amounts reserved, will not have a material effect on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements, except as otherwise described above. In the normal course of business and as part of its acquisition and divestiture strategy, the Company may provide certain representations and indemnifications related to legal, environmental, product liability, tax or other types of issues. Based on the nature of these representations and indemnifications, it is not possible to predict the maximum potential payments under all of these agreements due to the conditional nature of the Company’s obligations and the unique facts and circumstances involved in each particular agreement. Historically, payments made by the Company under these agreements did not have a material effect on the Company’s business, financial condition or results of operations.

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