If a deposit-book proves to be lost the following proceedings occur:
The owner has, in order to obtain a duplicate to give immediate notice
of the loss, either directly to the Post Office Savings Bank, or to
the nearest receiving office (Post Office) with as exact an account as
possible of its characteristic marks.
The Post Office Savings Bank immediately orders a note of the
characteristic marks to be entered in its books with the result that
meanwhile no payment is made to anyone on the lost deposit-book.
At the same time the Post Office Savings Bank causes a public placard
to be put up at the Post Office where the lost book was issued, and
also in that to which perhaps it might be forwarded, by which all
persons are informed that at the expiration of a month from the date of
its publication, if no claim to the lost book is made in the interval,
it will be cancelled and declared null and void, and a new one issued.
If within the month no claim is made, the Post Office Savings Bank
will on payment of a fee of 10 kreutzers Austrian currency, issue a
duplicate and declare the deposit-book proved lost, to be null and
void.
If a claim is made during the course of a month, the Post Office
Savings Bank must refer the parties to the ordinary tribunals, and no
duplicate is to be issued nor any proceedings permitted with reference
to the lost book until the validity of the outstanding claim has been
decided by a legal judgement.