La. Corporations and Associations § 12:1-140

Current with operative changes from the 2024 Third Special Legislative Session

Section 12:1-140 - Definitions

In this Chapter:

(1) "Articles of incorporation" means the original articles of incorporation, all amendments thereof, and any other documents permitted or required to be filed by a domestic business corporation with the secretary of state under any provision of this Chapter except R.S. 12:1-1621. If an amendment of the articles or any other document filed under this Chapter restates the articles in their entirety, thenceforth the "articles" shall not include any prior documents.

(2) "Authorized shares" means the shares of all classes a domestic or foreign corporation is authorized to issue.

(2A) "Beneficial shareholder" means a person who owns the beneficial interest in shares, including a record shareholder or a person on whose behalf shares are registered in the name of an intermediary or nominee.

(3) "Conspicuous" means so written, displayed, or presented that a reasonable person against whom the writing is to operate should have noticed it. For example, text in italics, boldface, contrasting color, capitals, or underlined is conspicuous.

(4) "Corporation", "domestic corporation", or "domestic business corporation" means a corporation for profit, which is not a foreign corporation, incorporated under or subject to the provisions of this Chapter.

(5) "Deliver" or "delivery" means any method of delivery used in conventional commercial practice, including delivery by hand, mail, commercial delivery, and, if authorized in accordance with R.S. 12:1-141, by electronic transmission.

(6) "Distribution" means a direct or indirect transfer of money or other property, except its own shares, or incurrence of indebtedness by a corporation to or for the benefit of its shareholders in respect of any of its shares. A distribution may be in any of the following forms:

(a) A declaration or payment of a dividend.

(b) A purchase, redemption, or other acquisition of shares.

(c) A distribution of indebtedness.

(d) Any other form.

(6A) "Document" means either of the following:

(a) Any tangible medium on which information is inscribed, and includes any writing or written instrument.

(b) An electronic record.

(6B) "Domestic unincorporated entity" means an unincorporated entity whose internal affairs are governed by the laws of this state.

(7) "Effective date of notice" is defined in R.S. 12:1-141.

(7A) "Electronic" means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities.

(7B) "Electronic record" means information that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in paper form through an automated process used in conventional commercial practice, unless otherwise authorized in accordance with R.S. 12:1-141(J).

(7C) "Electronic transmission" or "electronically transmitted" means any form or process of communication, not directly involving the physical transfer of paper or another tangible medium, that is both of the following:

(a) Suitable for the retention, retrieval, and reproduction of information by the recipient.

(b) Retrievable in paper form by the recipient through an automated process used in conventional commercial practice, unless otherwise authorized in accordance with R.S. 12: 1-141(J).

(7D) "Eligible entity" means a domestic or foreign unincorporated entity or a domestic or foreign nonprofit corporation.

(7E) "Eligible interests" means interests or memberships.

(8) [Reserved.]

(9) "Entity" includes a domestic and foreign business corporation, a domestic and foreign nonprofit corporation, an estate, a trust, a domestic and foreign unincorporated entity, and a state, the United States, and a foreign government.

(9A) The phrase "facts objectively ascertainable" outside of a filed document or plan is defined in R.S. 12:1-120(L).

(9B) "Expenses" means reasonable expenses of any kind, including attorney's fees and other litigation-related expenses, that are incurred in connection with a matter.

(9C) "Filing entity" means an unincorporated entity that is required by law to file a public organic document for any of the purposes stated in the definition of that term.

(10) "Foreign corporation" means a corporation incorporated under a law other than the law of this state, that would be a business corporation if incorporated under the laws of this state.

(10A) "Foreign nonprofit corporation" means a corporation incorporated under a law other than the law of this state, that would be a nonprofit corporation if incorporated under the laws of this state.

(10B) "Foreign unincorporated entity" means an unincorporated entity whose internal affairs are governed by an organic law of a jurisdiction other than this state.

(11) "Governmental subdivision" includes parish, authority, county, district, municipality, and any other state or local political subdivision.

(12) "Includes" denotes a partial definition.

(13) "Individual" means a natural person.

(13A) "Intangible property" means a thing that is classified as incorporeal, as distinguished from corporeal, or property that is classified as intangible, as distinguished from tangible, by the law of the jurisdiction that governs its ownership.

(13B) "Interest" means either or both of the following rights under the organic law of an unincorporated entity:

(a) The right to receive distributions from the entity either in the ordinary course or upon liquidation, other than as an assignee or other similar role.

(b) The right to receive notice or vote on issues involving its internal affairs, other than as an agent, assignee, proxy, or person responsible for managing its business and affairs.

(13C) "Interest holder" means a person who owns an interest.

(13D) "Knowledge" means actual knowledge. "Know" has a corresponding meaning.

(14) "Means" denotes an exhaustive definition.

(14A) "Membership" means the rights of a member in a domestic or foreign nonprofit corporation.

(14B) "Nonfiling entity" means an unincorporated entity that is not a filing entity.

(14C) "Nonprofit corporation" or "domestic nonprofit corporation" means a corporation incorporated under the laws of this state and subject to the provisions of the Nonprofit Corporation Law.

(15) "Notice" is defined in R.S. 12:1-141.

(15A) "Organic document" means a public organic document or a private organic document.

(15B) "Organic law" means the statute governing the internal affairs of a domestic or foreign business or nonprofit corporation or unincorporated entity.

(15C) "Owner liability" means personal liability for a debt, obligation, or liability of a domestic or foreign business or nonprofit corporation or unincorporated entity that is imposed on a person solely by reason of the person's status as a shareholder, partner, member, or interest holder or solely by the terms of articles of incorporation, bylaws, or an organic document under a provision of the organic law of an entity authorizing the articles of incorporation, bylaws or an organic document to make one or more specified shareholders, partners, members, or interest holders liable in their capacity as shareholders, partners, members, or interest holders for all or specified debts, obligations, or liabilities of the entity.

(16) "Person" includes an individual and an entity.

(16A) "Personal property" means a thing that is classified as movable, as distinguished from immovable, or property that is classified as personal, as distinguished from real, by the law of the jurisdiction that governs its ownership.

(17) "Principal office" means the office, in or out of this state, so designated in the most recent annual report or, until an annual report is filed, in the articles of incorporation, where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign corporation are located.

(17A) "Private organic document" means any document, other than the public organic document, if any, that determines the internal governance of an unincorporated entity. Where a private organic document has been amended or restated, the term means the private organic document as last amended or restated.

(17B) "Public organic document" means the document, if any, that is filed of public record to create an unincorporated entity, to allow it to own immovable property as to third persons, or to protect its shareholders, partners, members, or interest holders against owner liability. Where a public organic document has been amended or restated, the term means the public organic document as last amended or restated.

(18) "Proceeding" includes civil suit and civil, criminal, administrative, and investigatory action.

(18A) "Public corporation" means a corporation that has shares listed on a national securities exchange or regularly traded in a market maintained by one or more members of a national securities association.

(18B) "Qualified director" is defined in R.S. 12:1-143.

(18C) "Real property" means a thing that is classified as immovable, as distinguished from movable, or property that is classified as real, as distinguished from personal, by the law of the jurisdiction that governs its ownership.

(19) "Record date" means the date established under Part 6 or 7 of this Chapter on which a corporation determines the identity of its shareholders and their shareholdings for purposes of this Chapter. The determinations shall be made as of the close of business on the record date unless another time for doing so is specified when the record date is fixed.

(19A) "Record shareholder" means either of the following:

(a) The person in whose name shares are registered in the records of the corporation.

(b) The person identified as the beneficial owner of shares in a beneficial ownership certificate pursuant to R.S. 12:1-723 on file with the corporation to the extent of the rights granted by such certificate.

(20) "Secretary" means the corporate officer responsible for custody of the minutes of the meetings of the board of directors and of the shareholders and for authenticating records of the corporation.

(21) "Shareholder" means, unless varied for purposes of a specific provision of this Chapter, a record shareholder.

(22) "Shares" means the units into which the proprietary interests in a corporation are divided.

(22A) "Sign" or "signature" means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a document, either of the following:

(a) To execute or adopt a tangible symbol in a document, and includes any manual, facsimile, or conformed signature.

(b) To attach to or logically associate with an electronic transmission an electronic sound, symbol, or process, and includes an electronic signature in an electronic transmission.

(23) "State," when referring to a part of the United States, includes a state and commonwealth, and their agencies and governmental subdivisions, and a territory and insular possession, and their agencies and governmental subdivisions, of the United States.

(24) "Subscriber" means a person who subscribes for shares in a corporation, whether before or after incorporation.

(24A) "Tangible property" means a thing that is classified as corporeal, as distinguished from incorporeal, or property that is classified as tangible as distinguished from intangible, by the law of the jurisdiction that governs its ownership.

(24B) "Unincorporated entity" means an organization or juridical person that has a separate juridical personality and that is not any of the following: a domestic or foreign business or nonprofit corporation, an estate, a trust, a state, the United States, a foreign government, or any agency or subdivision of a foreign government. In addition, the term includes a general partnership, limited liability company, limited partnership, partnership in commendam, registered limited liability partnership, business trust, joint stock association, and unincorporated nonprofit association, regardless of whether any of those included forms of organization is treated as a juridical person under the relevant organic law.

(25) "Unanimous governance agreement" is defined in R.S. 12:1-732.

(25A) "United States" includes a district, authority, bureau, commission, department, and any other agency of the United States.

(25B) "Votes entitled to be cast", when used in specifying the proportion of votes required to provide a shareholder quorum or approval of an action, means the number of votes in a voting group that would be cast at a meeting at which all shares in the voting group were present and voting.

(26) "Voting group" means all shares of one or more classes or series that under the articles of incorporation or this Chapter are entitled to vote and be counted together collectively on a matter at a meeting of shareholders. All shares entitled by the articles of incorporation or this Chapter to vote generally on the matter are for that purpose a single voting group.

(27) "Voting power" means the current power to vote in the election of directors.

(27A) "Voting trust beneficial owner" means an owner of a beneficial interest in shares of the corporation held in a voting trust established pursuant to R.S. 12:1-730(A). "Unrestricted voting trust beneficial owner" means, with respect to any shareholder rights, a voting trust beneficial owner whose entitlement to exercise the shareholder right in question is not inconsistent with the voting trust agreement.

(28) "Writing" or "written" means any information in the form of a document.

La. Corporations and Associations § 12:1-140

Acts 2014, No. 328, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2015; Acts 2015, No. 356, §1; Acts 2016, No. 442, §1; Acts 2017, No. 57, §1.

Amended by Acts 2017, No. 57,s. 1, eff. 8/1/2017.

Amended by Acts 2016, No. 442,s. 1, eff. 8/1/2016.

Amended by Acts 2015, No. 356,s. 1, eff. 8/1/2015.

Added by Acts 2014, No. 328,s. 1, eff. 1/1/2015.