@Overnight What I outlined was totally hypothetical. As I said at the end of my post, it could not happen under the current legal structure of corporations and limited partnerships that we have here in the USA. BMK
And thank God for that, because the world would be in chaos! Remember the McDonalds chick who sued the corp for third degree burns spilling her coffee in the crotch while she was driving LIKE A Fing DUMBASS in the 1980s, which started the whole safety campaign costing companies billions and billions of dollars of expenditures to avoid more tort? Because of that stupid bitch, we now have safety warnings about "HOT!" on every food stuff that is made with a heat source, including electricity, fire, and microwaves. I wonder if that numbskull ever kept buying coffee from McDonalds, after her super-settlement. Dumb cunt. I hate her.
On what stock? Are you asking about a real stock with a live price ladder at the moment, or is this hypothetical? Because hypothetical is silly. Because it is not real. Silly sim stuff.
A stock holder has no obligation to deliver anything. If it is worthless, it just goes in a puff of smoke. A short, however, needs to buy back. So, if it goes to infinity....
It only goes puff if the company is out of business. Your broker cuts you a letter. If you need to be out and the listing is still alive you may need to get out to have the exit in a tax reporting period. It is rare.
Is that possible for stock to go zero? I never see stocks go zero I believe? It can go into single digit, but never zero nor negative. Maybe It could go zero if the company is no longer valid?
Oil futures is quite different from stocks. Oil went negative during expiration week because there was more than 100K speculative long positions that needed to be closed but the end users have very little available storage capacity so weren't interested in taking delivery. Longs had to pay to get rid of the contracts as they were in no position to take physical delivery. With stocks, longs can let the shares drop to zero. No reason to pay someone to get rid on your long position.
Settlement was reduced by three quarters on appeal. She was a dumbazz but did get severe 3rd degree burns and spent about a week in the hospital. Also Mickey Dees had chance to settle for less before trial but declined. But I do agree your main point the pandora's box it opened for the lawyers to go for the gold.