Opinion ID: 2189772
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Heading: Duty to Maintain Stock Ledger

Text: The purpose of the stock ledger is to enable the corporation to determine who is eligible to exercise the important rights of a stockholder: The stock ledger shall be the only evidence as to who are the stockholders entitled to examine the stock ledger, the list required by this section or the books of the corporation, or to vote in person or by proxy at any meeting of stockholders. 8 Del.C. § 219(c). In Delaware, the right of a stockholder to inspect and examine the books and records of a corporation was originally recognized at common law. That right can only be taken away by statutory enactment. State ex rel. Healy v. Superior Oil Corp., Del.Super., 13 A.2d 453, 454 (1940) (citing State ex rel. Cochran v. Penn-Beaver Oil Co., Del.Supr., 143 A. 257 (1926)). In addition to the common law right of inspection, the unique nature of the right to examine the stock ledger has been recognized by its codification in 8 Del.C. § 220(b). The right to examine the corporation's stock ledger is hollow, indeed, if it can be defeated by never maintaining such a record. If the common law right of a stockholder to examine a corporation's books can only be diminished by legislation, a fortiori, the statutorily guaranteed right to examine the stock ledger cannot be frustrated by nonfeasance. We find it implicit in Sections 219 and 220 that Delaware corporations have an affirmative duty to maintain a stock ledger. Cf. Bryan v. Western Pac. R.R. Corp., Del.Ch., 35 A.2d 909, 914 (1944); 8 Del.C. §§ 219-220.