used to amortize the $7.2 billion of before-tax actuarial losses recorded by the company as of December 31, 2014, and an estimate of the costs to be recognized in expense during 2015. In addition, information related to company contributions is included on Page FS-56 in Note 22 under the heading “Cash Contributions and Benefit Payments.”

Contingent Losses Management also makes judgments and estimates in recording liabilities for claims, litigation, tax matters and environmental remediation. Actual costs can frequently vary from estimates for a variety of reasons. For example, the costs for settlement of claims and litigation can vary from estimates based on differing interpretations of laws, opinions on culpability and assessments on the amount of damages. Similarly, liabilities for environmental remediation are subject to change because of changes in laws, regulations and their interpretation, the determination of additional information on the extent and nature of site contamination, and improvements in technology.

Under the accounting rules, a liability is generally recorded for these types of contingencies if management determines the loss to be both probable and estimable. The company generally reports these losses as “Operating expenses” or “Selling, general and administrative expenses” on the Consolidated Statement of Income. An exception to this handling is for income tax matters, for which benefits are recognized only if management determines the tax position is “more likely than not” (i.e., likelihood greater than 50 percent) to be allowed by the tax jurisdiction. For additional discussion of income tax uncertainties, refer to Note 23 beginning on page FS-57. Refer also to the business segment discussions elsewhere in this section for the effect on earnings from losses associated with certain litigation, environmental remediation and tax matters for the three years ended December 31, 2014.

An estimate as to the sensitivity to earnings for these periods if other assumptions had been used in recording these liabilities is not practicable because of the number of contingencies that must be assessed, the number of underlying assumptions and the wide range of reasonably possible outcomes, both in terms of the probability of loss and the estimates of such loss.