Trinity Industries Inc (TRN)

[Enterprising Investor]

From the Conference Call (2/19/16)

Trinity Industries, Inc.
Earnings Release Conference Call
Comments of S. Theis Rice
Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
2015 10-K Release
February 19, 2016

S. Theis Rice:

Thank you Gail and good morning everyone.

In my comments today I will refer to Trinity Industries and Trinity Highway Products together as Trinity. As previously reported, Trinity has appealed to the Fifth Circuit the June 2015 False Claims Act judgment involving the ET Plus® guardrail end terminal system. We will file our opening brief next month with full briefing by the parties to follow. We expect the Fifth Circuit will not issue a ruling in this case earlier than late 2016.

I would like to reiterate a few points related to this appeal: First, Trinity believes strongly in its appellate arguments; we are confident that no fraud was committed; and we believe there are strong legal grounds for the Fifth Circuit to overturn the judgment. Second, we stand 100 percent behind our product – the ET Plus® System – and we are selling it today. In the fall of 2015, after completing what the Federal Highway Administration termed the most thorough evaluation of a roadside device ever conducted, the FHWA reconfirmed yet again that the ET Plus® Systems in use today on the nation’s roadways meet all federal testing criteria and performance evaluation standards and that the system has been, and remains, fully eligible for federal-aid reimbursement.

We have also previously reported that the Commonwealth of Virginia has intervened in a state court action under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act filed by the same party who filed the federal False Claims Act case. In an order entered by the Virginia court on January 27, 2016, the Commonwealth’s case was stayed pending resolution of the federal False Claims Act case currently on appeal.

The same party who filed the federal False Claims Act case and the Virginia case has also filed six other, state false claims act cases under each state’s law. Each of these six states has declined to intervene in or join the case filed in their state and all six cases are currently stayed.1

Please refer to www.etplusfacts.com/virginia for more information on the Virginia litigation.

1 Indiana; Delaware; Iowa; Rhode Island; Tennessee; Minnesota