18. Commitments and Contingencies |
6 Months Ended |
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Jun. 30, 2018 | |
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] | |
Commitments and Contingencies |
Note 18: Commitments and Contingencies
Litigation
On December 29, 2016, ARCA served a Minnesota state court complaint for breach of contract on Skybridge Americas, Inc. (“SA”), ARCA’s primary call center vendor throughout 2015 and most of 2016. ARCA seeks damages in the millions of dollars as a result of alleged overcharging by SA and lost client contracts. On January 25, 2017, SA served a counterclaim for unpaid invoices in the amount of approximately $460,000 plus interest and attorneys’ fees. On March 29, 2017, the Hennepin County district court dismissed ARCA’s breach of contract claim based on SA’s overuse of its Canadian call center but permitted ARCA’s remaining claims to proceed. On October 24, 2017, ARCA filed a motion for partial summary judgment; SA cross-motioned on November 6, 2017. On January 8, 2018, judgment was entered in SA’s favor, which was amended as of February 28, 2018 for a total amount of $613,566.32 including interest and attorneys’ fees. On March 2, 2018, ARCA appealed the judgment to the Minnesota Court of Appeals. The appeal is in progress.
On November 15, 2016, ARCA served an arbitration demand on Haier US Appliance Solutions, Inc., dba GE Appliances (“GEA”), alleging breach of contract and interference with prospective business advantage. ARCA seeks over $2 million in damages. On April 18, 2017, GEA served a counterclaim for approximately $337,000 in alleged obligations under the parties’ recycling agreement. Simultaneously with serving its counterclaim in the arbitration, which is venued in Chicago, GEA filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky seeking damages of approximately $530,000 plus interest and attorneys’ fees allegedly owed under a previous agreement between the parties. On December 12, 2017, the court stayed GEA’s complaint in favor of the arbitration. Under the terms of ARCA’s transaction with Recleim LLC, Recleim LLC is obligated to pay GEA on ARCA’s behalf the amounts claimed by GEA in the arbitration and in the lawsuit pending in Kentucky. Those amounts have been paid into escrow pending the outcome of the arbitration. The arbitration is currently scheduled for December 3-7, 2018.
AMTIM Capital, Inc. (“AMTIM”) acts as our representative to market our recycling services in Canada under an arrangement that pays AMTIM for revenues generated by recycling services in Canada as set forth in the agreement between the parties. A dispute has arisen between AMTIM and us with respect to the calculation of amounts due to AMTIM pursuant to the agreement. In a lawsuit filed in the province of Ontario, AMTIM claims a discrepancy in the calculation of fees due to AMTIM by us of approximately $2.0 million. Although the outcome of this claim is uncertain, we believe that no further amounts are due under the terms of the agreement and that we will continue to defend our position relative to this lawsuit.
We are party from time to time to ordinary course disputes that we do not believe to be material or have merit. We intend to vigorously defend ourselves against these ordinary course disputes. |