Daily Record Financial News &
Monday, January 18, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 046 • Two Sections
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Analysts see upside for CSX
Bad 2016 could set up brighter 2017 Did you know that you can trade a New York Stock Exchangelisted stock on Nasdaq? It’s apparently not a wellknown fact and CSX Corp. Chief Executive Officer Michael Ward admitted even he was unaware of that before his company switched its stock listing last month from the NYSE to Nasdaq. He learned that Nasdaq was already involved with CSX before the company was actually listed there. “Even before the change, about 50 percent of our shares traded on
Nasdaq,” he said in an interview last week. The switch was a cost-savings move for the company. Ward said CSX is saving about $400,000 a year by listing on Nasdaq. But otherwise, the switch is having basically no impact on
CSX’s stock. However, the weak demand for freight shipments is having a major impact on the railroad industry and CSX stockholders are feeling it. CSX’s stock fell as much as $1.95 to $21.75 Wednesday, its lowest price in nearly three years, after the Jacksonville-based company not only reported lower fourthquarter earnings, as expected, but also forecast 2016 earnings will be lower than 2015. The difficult industry environ-
ment, which Ward described as a “freight recession” in the company’s conference call with analysts last week, has been sending CSX’s stock down for the past year. While that looks bad now, several analysts said after the earnings report they see nowhere for CSX’s stock to go but up. BB&T Capital Markets analyst Mark Levin on Thursday upgraded his rating on CSX from “hold” to “buy.” Basch continued on Page A-11
New week, new job
Ruling’s impact unclear in executions
3 attorneys leave Rogers Towers for Burr & Forman
By David Chapman Staff Writer
Public
Court rules only judges can decide death penalty
By Max Marbut Staff Writer
Attorneys Michael Waskiewicz, Ellsworth Summers and Adrian Rust left Rogers Towers to start the Jacksonville office of Burr & Forman. The office opened in the Bank of America Tower last week with the help of Birmingham managing partner William “Lee” Thuston, back. against Burr & Forman in cases. Waskiewicz had been with the firm for four years. Casual conversations started and materialized over time, as is often the case when two sides are in contact with each other so long. At one point, Summers said the two ended up on the same side of a case. Thir-
legal notices begin on page
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Photo by David Chapman
On a recent Friday, attorneys Adrian Rust, Ellsworth Summers and Michael Waskiewicz were closing out the week — and their time at Rogers Towers. Less than 72 hours later, the three were shareholders opening the Jacksonville office of Burr & Forman. “It was a whirlwind weekend,” said Rust, the Jacksonville office’s managing partner. Burr & Forman has opened offices in Orlando, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale in recent years. It specializes in health care, manufacturing, financial institutions and the restaurant industry. Rust, Summers and Waskiewicz have lengthy backgrounds working with financial clients. There was no break or easing-in period, though, for the three attorneys. That Friday they notified Rogers Towers of their decision to leave. The doors opened Monday in the 3000 suite of the Bank of America Tower. Walking through the office, one would have a hard time seeing the transition was as fast-paced as it was. “You wouldn’t think we opened Monday at 8 o’clock,” said Summers of their opening last week. “It’s been overwhelming in a wonderful way.” They weren’t exactly just given keys to the office and left on their own. Burr & Forman’s administrative team ensured the three, along with Robert Neilson and Armando Nozzolillo, aren’t bogged down with administrative work. “These guys are here to practice law,” said William “Lee” Thuston, managing partner of the Birmingham, Ala., office. That first day was filled with congratulatory emails and phone calls from friends, clients and other area attorneys — not to mention the job inquiries. Many were surprised about the move, said Rust. The seed for such a move actually was planted more than five years ago by clients. Rust was with Rogers Towers for 20 years and Summers for 11, often lining up
Ward
ty- and 40-hour weeks can lead to quite a few casual conversations. However, clients drive everything with Burr & Forman. And the clients said they needed a Jacksonville office, Thuston said. Casual conversations ramped up in the final quarter of last year and Thuston said Burr continued on Page A-10
Published
for
Making the decision to sentence a felon convicted in Florida to the death penalty was moved last week out of the judge’s chamber and into the jury room by the U.S. Supreme Court. But, the state attorney and a local criminal defense attorney aren’t sure how the ruling will ultimately affect Florida courts, since a similar ruling by the high court in 2002 has been ignored. The 8-1 ruling Jan. 12 addressed aggravating circumstances that must be found before defendants can be sentenced to death. In 2002, the high court ruled in Ring v. Arizona the determination of aggravating circumstances must be made by juries, not judges. In Florida, juries are required to make recommendations to judges regarding the death penalty after considering aggravating and mitigating circumstances. Judges then decide whether to impose the death sentence. The decision came in the appeal of Timothy Lee Hurst, who was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of restaurant worker Cynthia Harrison in Pensacola. Harrison was an assistant manager at Popeye’s Fried Chicken, where Hurst worked. She was bound, gagged and stabbed more than 60 times before her body was placed in a freezer. The jury in the Hurst case recommended a death sentence on a 7-5 vote. In sentencing Hurst to death, the trial judge found the murder was committed during a robbery and that it was “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.” Both are aggravating circumstances.
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