CSX/TCI

One lawsuit deserves another?

Last month, the railroad company CSX sued one of its large shareholders, the hedge fund TCI, claiming that it hadn't properly disclosed the nature and extent of its stake in the company.

So Friday, April 4, TCI filed its answer to that complaint, along with its counterclaims.

The answer is, simply: Yes, we did too disclose. Or, in language sounding a bit less like it comes from a playground: "All of the material information regarding TCI's investment in CSX is public," referencing in particular the Hart-Scott-Rodino notice that TCI sent CSX more than a year ago, and that CSX in turn included in its SEC filings.

The most newsworthy of the counterclaims is that CSX and its chief executive, Michael Ward, have engaged in insider trader, through the mechanism of the timing of certain stock grants to executives eleven months ago.