Posted by Allan Horwich (Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and Schiff Hardin LLP), on Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Editor's Note: Allan Horwich is Professor of Practice at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and partner at Schiff Hardin LLP. This post is based on a recent article by Professor Horwich, published in the Securities Regulation Law Journal.
Since at least the mid-1990s the question of disclosure by public companies about the health of their executives has been the subject of scholarly commentary and the business press. Interest in this issue was revived with the recent death of the CEO of CSX Corporation, Hunter Harrison. He joined CSX in March 2017. Press reports soon raised questions about his health. The first health-related disclosure by the company, however, was on December 14, 2017, when CSX announced that Harrison had taken medical leave due to unexpected complications from a recent illness. The price of CSX stock dropped 7%. He died the next day.