§ 12:1-140 — Definitions

§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.

Legislative History

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