Item 1. Legal Proceedings
ITEM 1. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
In the normal course of business, the Company is subject to a variety of claims and lawsuits, including, but not limited to, litigation relating to employment, workers’ compensation, products liability, environmental and intellectual property. The ultimate outcomes of these matters are not predictable with certainty. The Company has liability insurance to cover many of these claims.
The Company and its subsidiaries, Helix Uniformed Ltd. (“Helix”) and Preformed Line Products (Canada) Limited (“PLPC Canada”), were each named, jointly and severally, with each of SNC-Lavalin ATP, Inc. (“SNC ATP”), HD Supply Canada Inc., by its trade names HD Supply Power Solutions and HD Supply Utilities (“HD Supply”), and Anixter Power Solutions Canada Inc. (the corporate successor to HD Supply), “Anixter” and, together with the Company, PLPC Canada, Helix, SNC ATP and HD Supply, the (“Defendants”) in a complaint filed by Altalink, L.P. (the “Plaintiff”) in the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta in Alberta, Canada in November 2016 (the “Complaint”).
The Complaint states that Plaintiff engaged SNC ATP to design, engineer, procure and construct numerous power distribution and transmission facilities in Alberta (the “Projects”) and that through SNC ATP and HD Supply (now Anixter), spacer dampers manufactured by Helix were procured and installed in the Projects. The Complaint alleges that the spacer dampers have and may continue to become loose, open and detach from the conductors, resulting in damage and potential injury and a failure to perform the intended function of providing spacing and damping to the Project. The Plaintiffs were initially seeking an estimated $56.0 million Canadian dollars in damages jointly and severally from the Defendants, representing the costs of monitoring and replacing the spacer dampers and remediating property damage, due to alleged defects in the design and construction of, and supply of materials for, the Projects by SNC ATP and HD Supply/Anixter and in the design of the spacer dampers by Helix. The Plaintiffs reduced their demand for damages to $29.4 million Canadian dollars on June 1, 2018.
The Company believes the claims against it are without merit and intends to vigorously defend against such claims. We are unable to predict the outcome of this case and cannot reasonably estimate a potential range of loss. However, if it is determined adverse to the Company, it could have a material effect on the Company’s financial results.
The Company is not a party to any other pending legal proceedings that the Company believes would, individually or in the aggregate, have a material adverse effect on its financial condition, results of operations or cash flow.
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