File photo of an old Coca Cola ad (© Tony Savino/Corbis)

Family says it got $130M in Coca-Cola stock at garage sale

4/7/2012

​A family is suing the Coca-Cola Co., claiming it bought 1.8 million shares of the company's stock at a garage sale. That's not a typo. At a garage sale in 2008, Tony Marohn found an antique certificate endorsed for shares of Palmer Union Oil Co. and signed it in a blank space left for a "transferee." The Marohn family believes that signature entitles them to $130 million of stock in Coca-Cola Co., which has historic ties to Palmer Union Oil. It sounds like a stretch, but Marohn's lawyer is citing legal precedent, and the judge assigned to the case describes it as, "a new version of the 'Beverly Hillbillies.'" So perhaps the Marohns will strike it undeservedly rich after all.

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Do they deserve millions in Coca-Cola stock, and if so, where is the nearest garage sale?