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Legal Proceedings | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2016
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
Legal Proceedings | Legal Proceedings From time to time, we are subject to claims alleging product liability, patent infringement or other claims incurred in the ordinary course of business. These may involve our United States or foreign operations, or sales by foreign distributors. Likewise, from time to time, the Company may receive an information request or subpoena from a government agency such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Justice, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Department of Labor, the Treasury Department or other federal and state agencies or foreign governments or government agencies. These information requests or subpoenas may or may not be routine inquiries, or may begin as routine inquiries and over time develop into enforcement actions of various types. The product liability claims are generally covered by various insurance policies, subject to certain deductible amounts, maximum policy limits and certain exclusions in the respective policies or as required as a matter of law. In some cases, we may be entitled to indemnification by third parties. We establish reserves sufficient to cover probable losses associated with any such pending claims. We do not expect that the resolution of any pending claims or investigations will have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. There can be no assurance, however, that future claims or investigations, or the costs associated with responding to such claims or investigations, especially claims and investigations not covered by insurance, will not have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. Manufacturers of medical products may face exposure to significant product liability claims. To date, we have not experienced any product liability claims that have been material to our financial statements or financial condition, but any such claims arising in the future could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations. We currently maintain commercial product liability insurance of $25 million per incident and $25 million in the aggregate annually, which we believe is adequate. This coverage is on a claims-made basis. There can be no assurance that claims will not exceed insurance coverage, that the carriers will be solvent or that such insurance will be available to us in the future at a reasonable cost. Our operations are subject, and in the past have been subject, to a number of environmental laws and regulations governing, among other things, air emissions; wastewater discharges; the use, handling and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes; soil and groundwater remediation and employee health and safety. In some jurisdictions, environmental requirements may be expected to become more stringent in the future. In the United States, certain environmental laws can impose liability for the entire cost of site restoration upon each of the parties that may have contributed to conditions at the site regardless of fault or the lawfulness of the party’s activities. While we do not believe that the present costs of environmental compliance and remediation are material, there can be no assurance that future compliance or remedial obligations would not have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. During the third quarter of 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") inspected our Centennial, Colorado manufacturing facility and issued a Form 483 with observations on September 20, 2013. We subsequently submitted responses to the Observations, and the FDA issued a warning letter on January 30, 2014 relating to the inspection and the responses to the Form 483 observations. Accordingly, we undertook corrective actions. During the fourth quarter of 2014, the FDA again inspected our Centennial, Colorado manufacturing facility and, on November 18, 2014, issued a Form 483 with eight observations, three of which the FDA characterized as repeat observations. On December 10, 2014, we responded to the Form 483 observations. We received some additional questions from the FDA and responded to these questions on April 25, 2015. On August 1, 2016, we received notification from the FDA that the warning letter was closed. The costs of remediation relating to the January 30, 2014 warning letter were not material to our consolidated results of operations. We may have future inspections at other sites and there can be no assurance that the costs of responding to such inspections will not be material. In September 2013, Lexion Medical ("Lexion") filed suit against SurgiQuest in federal court in the District of Minnesota alleging false advertising under the Lanham Act, as well as various state law claims, including common law trade libel and unfair competition. In March 2014, SurgiQuest’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction was granted and that same day, SurgiQuest filed suit against Lexion in federal court in the District of Delaware seeking, among other claims, a declaratory judgment that SurgiQuest’s actions did not violate the Lanham Act. Lexion filed an answer generally denying SurgiQuest’s claims, and asserted counterclaims that were substantially similar to the claims Lexion brought in the Minnesota action. On January 4, 2016, SurgiQuest became a subsidiary of CONMED as further described in Note 3, and CONMED assumed the costs and liabilities related to the Lexion lawsuit subject to the terms of the merger agreement referenced in Note 3. The case is in the discovery phase with trial anticipated in 2017. Based on recently produced expert's reports, Lexion is seeking damages of $14.8 million for alleged lost profits and $18.7 million for costs related to alleged “corrective advertising” as well as an unspecified sum for disgorgement of SurgiQuest’s alleged profit. We believe that there is no merit to Lexion’s claims against SurgiQuest and intend to vigorously defend the claims asserted by Lexion.

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