lost / misplaced / stolen stock certificate

[dural]

We have either lost or misplaced our common stock certificate representing a significant number of shares in a large American corporation. In the worst case our certificate may have been stolen.

Because of this situation, we have the following legal concerns and questions:

1) Is the certificate negotiable to anyone who is not the registered owner?

2) Can the person(s) in possession of the stock certificate re-register it in their name(s) or sell the certificate and receive the proceeds without our knowledge?

 

[ALawyer]

Immediately notify the company's shareholder relations department -- call and confirm in writing -- and they probably will have you fill out an affidavit of loss and buy a surety bond to protect the company against a fraudulent attempt to have it registered later, and issue a new certificate. You are probbaly proitected but it will cost a few hundred dollars for the bond, more if the value of the shares is huge.

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