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On February 22, 2019, Webasto filed a lawsuit, which was subsequently amended on April 5, 2019, against us in Delaware Superior Court, arising from the sale of the EES Business to Webasto in June 2018.
−Removed: The lawsuit generally alleges several claims against us for breach of contract, indemnity, declaratory judgment, and fraud and misrepresentation, including allegations regarding inaccuracy of certain diligence disclosures, failure to provide certain consents to contract assignments and related to the previously announced recall.
+Added: Webasto again amended the complaint in May 2021 to include additional claims.
+Added: The lawsuit generally alleges several claims against us for breach of contract, indemnity, declaratory judgment, and fraud and misrepresentation, including allegations regarding inaccuracy of certain diligence disclosures, financial disclosures, failure to provide certain consents to contract assignments and related to the previously announced recall.
Webasto seeks to recover the costs of the recall and other damages totaling over $100 million in addition to attorneys’ fees, costs, and punitive damages.
Additionally, Webasto is seeking a declaratory judgment that we did not meet the requirements to receive the additional $6.5 million of the purchase price which was held back at the closing of the transaction (the “Holdback Amount”).
−Removed: On August 16, 2019, we filed our answer to Webasto’s complaint and a counterclaim against Webasto seeking payment of the Holdback Amount and declaratory relief regarding Webasto’s cancellation of an assigned contract.
−Removed: As to the Webasto lawsuit, our initial evaluation is that many of the allegations are meritless and that we lack sufficient information to fully analyze other allegations at this time.
−Removed: Discovery in this lawsuit has begun and is ongoing and, as of June 17, 2020, a trial has been set for July 14, 2021.
−Removed: At present, the parties continue to engage in discovery and started conducting depositions in October 2020.
−Removed: Depositions ceased in November 2020 due to restrictions resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic and began again in February 2021.
−Removed: We expect to seek and obtain a trial continuance to account for pandemic-related delays, and therefore anticipate a new trial date in early 2022.
−Removed: We continue to mount a vigorous defense.
+Added: On August 16, 2019, we filed our answer to Webasto’s amended complaint filed in April 2019 and a counterclaim against Webasto seeking payment of the Holdback Amount and declaratory relief regarding Webasto’s cancellation of an assigned contract.
+Added: On June 2, 2021, we filed an answer to Webasto’s second amended complaint filed in May 2021.
+Added: As to the Webasto lawsuit, our evaluation remains that many of the allegations are meritless, but the discovery phase of litigation continues and we lack sufficient information to fully analyze other allegations at this time.
+Added: As of the date of this filing, trial is set for July 11, 2022.
+Added: At present written discovery and depositions continue in earnest.
+Added: We expect nationwide court closures and restrictions resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic to continue easing, but we expect the possibility of another trial continuance to account for pandemic-related delays (especially related to Europe where many relevant witnesses reside) and therefore trial could be pushed into 2023.
+Added: In order to avoid the future cost, expense, and distraction of continued litigation, we engaged in settlement negotiations with Webasto.
+Added: The negotiations did not result in a settlement of any of our or Webasto’s claims;
+Added: however, we were required to establish reserve related to this litigation as a result of our good faith offer to settle the claims.
+Added: The offer and resulting reserve do not reflect our view of the merits of the claims made in the litigation, and we continue to vigorously defend all claims.
On August 14, 2019, Benchmark, the company that assembled the products subject to the recall, served a demand for arbitration to AeroVironment and Webasto pursuant to its contracts with AeroVironment and Webasto, respectively.
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The recall remains a significant part of our pending litigation with Webasto.
+Added: In January 2021, Webasto also filed a lawsuit against Area 51, the subcontracted supplier of the part that allegedly led to the recall.
+Added: That case proceeded briefly in Orange County Superior Court, but recently settled out of court.
+Added: Any recovery that Webasto may have obtained from Area 51 will likely be an offset to any recovery Webasto might obtain from us in our lawsuit.
+Added: On August 9, 2021, a former employee filed a class action complaint against AeroVironment in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, California alleging various claims pursuant to the California Labor Code related to wages, meal breaks, overtime and other recordkeeping matters.
+Added: The complaint seeks a jury trial and payment of various alleged unpaid wages, penalties, interest and attorneys’ fees in unspecified amounts.
+Added: As of the date of this filing, we have not been served with the complaint.
We are subject to lawsuits, government investigations, audits and other legal proceedings from time to time in the ordinary course of our business.
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Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.