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Commitments and Contingencies
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015
Commitments and Contingencies  
Commitments and Contingencies

10. Commitments and Contingencies

 

Operating leases

The Company leases office and laboratory space in Monrovia, CA. In January 2015, we entered into a new lease agreement for the property. The new lease replaces the previous lease and extends our lease term to June 2020 with an option to renew for an additional five years. The new lease is a non-cancelable operating lease.

 

The Company also leases office space in San Diego, CA. In February 2015, we entered into an amended lease agreement for the San Diego property. The amended lease replaces the previous lease and provides for additional space in a building located in the same multi-building development. The amended lease expires in April 2018 and includes an option to renew for a period of one year. At December 31, 2015 the future minimum lease payments under the operationg leases were as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

Operating

 

Years ending December 31,

 

Leases

 

2016

 

$

679

 

2017

 

 

699

 

2018

 

 

602

 

2019

 

 

581

 

2020

 

 

299

 

Net rent expense for the years ended December 31, 2015,  2014 and 2013 was $558,000,  $597,000 and $547,000 respectively. In March 2016, the Company signed a lease for additional space in San Diego.

Contingencies

From time to time, the Company may be subject to various litigation and related matters arising in the ordinary course of business. The Company does not believe it is currently subject to any material matters where there is at least a reasonable possibility that a material loss may be incurred.

 

On March  3, 2015, a verified class action complaint, captioned DePinto v. John S. Stafford, et al., C.A. No. 10742, was filed in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware against certain of the Company's current and former directors alleging cause of action for Breach of Fiduciary Duty and Invalidity of Director and Stockholder Consents.  In general, the complaint alleged that the plaintiff and the class he seeks to represent were shareholders of the Company during the recapitalization and certain related transactions that the Company underwent in 2013 and that the defendants breached their fiduciary duties in the course of approving that series of transactions. It also challenged as invalid certain corporate acts taken in the 2013 time period. On June 10, 2015, the Company filed a Verified Petition for Relief under Del. C. Section 205 (the 205 Petition) related to the corporate acts challenged in the complaint. The defendants filed an answer to the class action complaint on June 22, 2015. On July 9, 2015, the Court consolidated the 205 Petition with the class action, joined the Company as a defendant and ordered it to file the claims in the 205 Petition as counter-claims in the class action, which the Company has done.

 

On August 11, 2015, the Company filed a Motion for leave to File an Amended Counter-Claim, along with the proposed Amended Counter-Claim and related documents. On October 5, 2015, the parties filed a Stipulation of Partial Settlement and related documents disclosing a settlement of the invalidity claims addressed in the complaint, the counter-claim and the proposed amended counter-claim including a request by plaintiff's counsel for reimbursement of legal fees up to $950,000. On October 7, 2015, we filed the Amended Counter-Claim and the related documents. On December 14, 2015, the Court entered an Order and Partial Final Judgment approving the settlement of the invalidity claims, validating each corporate act challenged in the complaint, dismissing with prejudice Count II of the complaint (the invalidity claims)  and granting plaintiff’s counsel a fee award. We have paid the plaintiff’s legal award cost of $950,000 net of insurance proceeds of $187,500 which has been reflected as a charge in our 2015 operations.

 

Based on the nature of the remaining claim, the Company believes that it is not possible to estimate the  likelihood of loss or a range of potential loss related to the claim; accordingly, no additional amount for any loss has been accrued at December 31, 2015.

 

Guarantees

In the normal course of business, we indemnify certain employees and other parties, such as collaboration partners and other parties that perform certain work on behalf of, or for the Company or take licenses to our technologies. We have agreed to hold these parties harmless against losses arising from our breach of representations or covenants, intellectual property infringement or other claims made against these parties in performance of their work with us.

These agreements typically limit the time within which the party may seek indemnification by us and the amount of the claim. It is not possible to prospectively determine the maximum potential amount of liability under these indemnification agreements since we have not had any prior indemnification claims on which to base the calculation. Further, each potential claim would be based on the unique facts and circumstances of the claim and the particular provisions of each agreement. We are not aware of any potential claims and did not record a liability as of December 31, 2015 and 2014.