Commitments and Contingent Liabilities

12 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2025

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Environmental Matters

Federal, state, and local requirements relating to the discharge of substances into the environment, the disposal of hazardous wastes, and other activities affecting the environment have and will continue to have an effect on our manufacturing operations. Thus far, compliance with environmental requirements and resolution of environmental claims have been accomplished without material effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations.

We have been designated as a potentially responsible party at 14 Superfund sites, excluding sites as to which our records disclose no involvement or as to which our potential liability has been finally determined and assumed by third parties. In addition, various other lawsuits, claims, and proceedings have been asserted against us seeking remediation of alleged environmental impairments, principally at previously owned properties.

Based on our assessment, we believe that our expenditures for environmental capital investment and remediation necessary to comply with present regulations governing environmental protection and other expenditures for the resolution of environmental claims will not have a material effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations. We cannot assess the possible effect of compliance with future requirements. Environmental remediation cost liabilities, net of related expected recoveries, were $49 million and $48 million as of September 30, 2025 and 2024, respectively.

Conditional Asset Retirement Obligations

We accrue for costs related to a legal obligation associated with the retirement of a tangible long-lived asset that results from the acquisition, construction, development, or the normal operation of the long-lived asset. The obligation to perform the asset retirement activity is not conditional even though the timing or method may be conditional. Identified conditional asset retirement obligations include asbestos abatement and remediation of soil contamination beneath current and previously divested facilities and lease restoration costs. We estimate conditional asset retirement obligations using site-specific knowledge and historical industry expertise. There have been no significant changes in liabilities incurred, liabilities settled, accretion expense, or revisions in estimated cash flows for the years ended September 30, 2025, 2024, and 2023. Conditional asset retirement obligations, net of related expected recoveries, were $51 million and $51 million as of September 30, 2025 and 2024, respectively.

Legacy Asbestos Matters

We (including our subsidiaries) have been named as a defendant in lawsuits alleging personal injury as a result of exposure to asbestos that was used in certain components of our products many years ago, including products from divested businesses for which we have agreed to defend and indemnify claims. Currently there are lawsuits that name us as defendants, together with hundreds of other companies. But in all cases, for those claimants who do show that they worked with our products or products of divested businesses for which we are responsible, we nevertheless believe we have meritorious defenses, in substantial part due to the integrity of the products, the encapsulated nature of any asbestos-containing components, and the lack of any impairing medical condition caused by our products. We defend those cases vigorously. However, certain of our agreements relating to divested businesses do not provide us the ability to directly control management of those claims, and our ongoing reimbursement of outside counsel and other expenses relating to defense of such claims represent the vast majority of our annual asbestos net litigation spend. Historically, we have been dismissed from the vast majority of claims with no payment to claimants.

Additionally, we have maintained insurance coverage that includes indemnity and defense costs, over and above self-insured retentions, for many of these asbestos claims. We believe these arrangements will provide substantial coverage for future defense and indemnity costs for these claims for many years into the future. The uncertainties of claim litigation make it difficult to predict accurately the ultimate outcome. That uncertainty is increased by the possibility of adverse rulings or new legislation affecting claim litigation or the settlement process. Subject to these uncertainties and based on our experience defending these claims, we do not believe these lawsuits will have a material effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we elected to change our method of accounting for net legacy asbestos-related defense costs from expensing as incurred to accruing for all future defense costs. See Note 1 for further information on this change.

Legacy asbestos liabilities and receivables from insurance recoveries are recorded as follows in the Consolidated Balance Sheet (in millions):


	September 30,
	2025		2024
Receivables	$	22	$	9
Other assets	268		93
Other current liabilities	(34)		(15)
Other liabilities	(407)		(105)
Net exposure	$	(151)	$	(18)

Other Matters

Various lawsuits, claims, and proceedings have been or may be instituted or asserted against us relating to the conduct of our business, including those pertaining to product liability, environmental, safety and health, intellectual property, employment, and contract matters. Although the outcome of litigation cannot be predicted with certainty and some lawsuits, claims, or proceedings may be disposed of unfavorably to us, we believe the disposition of matters that are pending or have been asserted will not have a material effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations.

We have, from time to time, divested certain of our businesses. In connection with these divestitures, certain lawsuits, claims, and proceedings may be instituted or asserted against us related to the period that we owned the businesses, either because we agreed to retain certain liabilities related to these periods or because such liabilities fall upon us by operation of law. In some instances the divested business has assumed the liabilities; however, it is possible that we might be responsible to satisfy those liabilities if the divested business is unable to do so. We do not believe these liabilities will have a material effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations.

In many countries we provide a limited intellectual property indemnity as part of our terms and conditions of sale and at times in other contracts with third parties. As of September 30, 2025, we were not aware of any material indemnification claims that were probable or reasonably possible of an unfavorable outcome. Historically, claims that have been made under the indemnification agreements have not had a material impact on our business, financial condition, or results of operations; however, to the extent that valid indemnification claims arise in the future, future payments by us could be significant and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations in a particular period.