(Reuters) – A 1917 stock certificate picked up at an estate sale that the owners had claimed was
worth $130 million in shares of The Coca-Cola Co may actually be worth a lot less.
2009. REUTERS/Joshua Lott
The family of Tony
Marohn, who bought the Palmer Union Oil Co stock certificate in 2008 for a few dollars, had said they were owed 1.8 million
shares of Coca-Cola. But on Wednesday, one of their lawyers, David Margules, told a Delaware judge that due to previously
unnoticed reverse stock splits, the stock was worth $12,000 to $15,000, a court transcript showed.
He said the new
figure “puts the nail in the coffin” of their dispute with Coke.
Coca-Cola’s attorney Jeffrey Cashden offered the
judge the company’s estimate of the Palmer Union Oil certificate. “Our position is it’s worth in the range of zero,” he
said at Wednesday’s hearing.
“In this case it wasn’t worth anything more than a good story for the family,” said Bob
Kerstein, who runs the scripophily.com website that researches old stock certificates.
Marohn had put his name on the
blank transferee line of the certificate to make it his, and through research found a link between Palmer Union Oil and
Coca-Cola.
After demanding that Coca-Cola make good on the certificate, the company sued Marohn in Delaware, where it
is incorporated. Marohn died in 2010, but his family took up the fight.
Kerstein said that paper securities sometimes
have value, though it might be as a collectible or even a potential tax break for a loss of investment.
(Reporting By
Tom Hals)