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Commitments and Contingencies | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2018
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
Commitments and Contingencies | Commitments and Contingencies Litigation Brazil Imposto sobre Circulação de Mercadorias e Serviços, or ICMS, a form of value-added tax in Brazil, was assessed to our Brazilian subsidiary Schweitzer-Mauduit do Brasil Indústria e Comércio de Papel Ltda. ("SWM-B") in December of 2000. SWM-B received two assessments from the tax authorities of the State of Rio de Janeiro for unpaid ICMS taxes on certain raw materials from January 1995 through November 2000, collectively the Raw Materials Assessment. The Raw Materials Assessments concerned the accrual and use by SWM-B of ICMS tax credits generated from the production and sale of certain non-tobacco related grades of paper sold domestically. SWM-B has contested the Raw Materials Assessments based on Article 150, VI of the Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988, which grants immunity from ICMS taxes to papers intended for printing books, newspapers and periodicals, or immune papers, and thus to the raw material inputs used to produce immune papers. The Federal Supreme Court decided the first Raw Materials Assessment in favor of SWM-B. SWM-B's appeal on the merits concerning Assessment 2 in the amount of approximately $10.7 million was denied by a single justice in a different chamber of the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil on April 9, 2018, and SWM-B has appealed his decision to the full chamber of the Federal Supreme Court on May 11, 2018. SWM-B received assessments from the tax authorities of the State of Rio de Janeiro for unpaid ICMS and Fundo Estadual de Combate à Pobreza ("FECP", a value-added tax similar to ICMS) taxes on interstate purchases of electricity. The state issued four sets of assessments against SWM-B, one for May 2006 - November 2007, a second for January 2008 - December 2010, a third for September 2011 - September 2013 which was replaced by a smaller assessment for January - June 2013, and a fourth for July 2013 - December 2017 (collectively the "Electricity Assessments"). SWM-B challenged all Electricity Assessments in administrative proceedings before the state tax council (in the first-level court Junta de Revisão Fiscal and, where appropriate, the appellate court Conselho de Contribuintes) based on Resolution 1.610/89, which defers these taxes on electricity purchased by an "electricity-intensive consumer." In 2014, a majority of the Conselho de Contribuintes sitting en banc ruled against SWM-B in the first and second Electricity Assessments ($5.0 million and $7.5 million, respectively, based on the foreign currency exchange rate at September 30, 2018), and SWM-B is now pursuing challenges to these two assessments in the state judicial system. Different chambers of the judicial court granted SWM-B preliminary injunctions against enforcement of these two assessments. The appellate administrative court (Conselho de Contribuintes) unanimously upheld SWM-B's challenge to the third Electricity Assessment and dismissed this Electricity Assessment on technical grounds, after the State admitted the tax did not apply as it had asserted. Instead, in August 2018, the State filed a revised Electricity Assessment in the amount of $0.5 million for ICMS on electricity purchased during part of 2013. In August 2018, the State filed a fourth Electricity Assessment in the amount of $8.2 million pertaining to ICMS and FECP on electricity purchased from July 2013 to December 2017. SWM-B filed challenges to these recent assessments in the first-level administrative court based on the statute of limitations and on the same grounds as the older cases. Additionally, the State issued a new regulation effective January 1, 2018 that only specific industries are “electricity-intensive consumers,” a list that excludes paper manufacturers. SWM-B contends this regulation shows that paper manufacturers were electricity-intensive consumers eligible to defer ICMS before 2018. SWM-B believes that both the remaining Raw Materials Assessment and the remaining Electricity Assessments will ultimately be resolved in its favor. No liability has been recorded in our consolidated financial statements for these assessments based on our evaluation of these matters under the facts and law as presently understood. The Company can give no assurance as to the ultimate outcome of such proceedings. France In December 2016, the Conseil de Prud’hommes d’Orange (a French court dealing with labor matters) rendered a decision by which the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Schweitzer Mauduit France (“SWM France”), was ordered to pay approximately €1.3 million to 18 former employees of Malaucène Industries, another wholly owned subsidiary, on the grounds, among other things, that SWM France was a “co-employer” of the plaintiffs, and, as a result, liable for certain obligations of Malaucène Industries with respect to such employees. Malaucène Industries stopped production in 2009. The Company believes that SWM France, which is a corporate holding company and indirect corporate parent of Malaucène Industries, is not a “co-employer” of any person and that the other claims are also without merit. The Company has no liability recorded in the consolidated financial statements for this matter, believing that the chances of SWM France to reverse the decision on appeal are sufficient that no such reserve is warranted. There can be no assurance, however, that the court of appeals will decide in favor of SWM France on any of the questions pending before the court. Environmental Matters The Company's operations are subject to various nations' federal, state and local laws, regulations and ordinances relating to environmental matters. The nature of the Company's operations exposes it to the risk of claims with respect to various environmental matters, and there can be no assurance that material costs or liabilities will not be incurred in connection with such claims. While the Company has incurred in the past several years, and will continue to incur, capital and operating expenditures in order to comply with environmental laws and regulations, it believes that its future cost of compliance with environmental laws, regulations and ordinances, and its exposure to liability for environmental claims and its obligation to participate in the remediation and monitoring of certain hazardous waste disposal sites, will not have a material effect on its financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. However, future events, such as changes in existing laws and regulations (including the enforcement thereof), or unknown contamination of sites owned, operated or used for waste disposal by the Company (including contamination caused by prior owners and operators of such sites or other waste generators), or similar circumstances arising at our unconsolidated joint ventures, may give rise to additional costs which could have a material effect on the Company's financial condition or results of operations. General Matters In the ordinary course of its business activities, the Company and its subsidiaries are involved in certain other judicial, administrative and regulatory proceedings involving both private parties and governmental authorities. These proceedings include insured and uninsured regulatory, employment, general and commercial liability, environmental, intellectual property rights and other matters. At this time, the Company does not expect any of these proceedings to have a material adverse effect on its reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. However, as the outcomes of such proceedings are unpredictable, the Company can give no assurance that the results of any such proceedings will not materially affect its reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

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