§ 21-214 — Act definitions

(MBCA 1.40) In the Nebraska Model Business Corporation Act:
(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 the act except section 21-2,228 . If an amendment of the articles or any other document filed under the act 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.
(3) Beneficial shareholder means a person who owns the beneficial interest in shares, which may be a record shareholder or a person on whose behalf shares are registered in the name of an intermediary or nominee.
(4) 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.
(5) 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 the act.
(6) 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 section 21-215 , by electronic transmission.
(7) 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 the form of a declaration or payment of a dividend; a purchase, redemption, or other acquisition of shares; a distribution of indebtedness; or otherwise.
(8) Document means (i) any tangible medium on which information is inscribed, and includes any writing or written instrument, or (ii) an electronic record.
(9) Domestic unincorporated entity means an unincorporated entity whose internal affairs are governed by the laws of this state.
(10) Effective date of notice is defined in section 21-215 .
(11) Electronic means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities.
(12) 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 subsection (k) of section 21-215 .
(13) Electronic transmission or electronically transmitted means any form or process of communication not directly involving the physical transfer of paper or another tangible medium, which (i) is suitable for the retention, retrieval, and reproduction of information by the recipient and (ii) is retrievable in paper form by the recipient through an automated process used in conventional commercial practice, unless otherwise authorized in accordance with subsection (k) of section 21-215 .
(14) Eligible entity means a domestic or foreign unincorporated entity or a domestic or foreign nonprofit corporation.
(15) Eligible interests means interests or memberships.
(16) Employee includes an officer but not a director. A director may accept duties that make the director also an employee.
(17) Entity includes domestic and foreign business corporation; domestic and foreign nonprofit corporation; limited liability company; estate; trust; domestic and foreign unincorporated entity; and state, United States, and foreign government.
(18) The phrase facts objectively ascertainable outside of a filed document or plan is defined in subsection (k) of section 21-203 .
(19) Expenses means reasonable expenses of any kind that are incurred in connection with a matter.
(20) Filing entity means an unincorporated entity that is of a type that is created by filing a public organic document.
(21) Foreign corporation means a corporation incorporated under a law other than the law of this state which would be a business corporation if incorporated under the laws of this state.
(22) Foreign nonprofit corporation means a corporation incorporated under a law other than the law of this state which would be a nonprofit corporation if incorporated under the laws of this state.
(23) Foreign unincorporated entity means an unincorporated entity whose internal affairs are governed by an organic law of a jurisdiction other than this state.
(24) Governmental subdivision includes authority, county, district, and municipality.
(25) Includes denotes a partial definition.
(26) Individual means a natural person.
(27) Interest means either or both of the following rights under the organic law of an unincorporated entity:
(i) The right to receive distributions from the entity either in the ordinary course or upon liquidation; or
(ii) 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.
(28) Interest holder means a person who holds of record an interest.
(29) Means denotes an exhaustive definition.
(30) Membership means the rights of a member in a domestic or foreign nonprofit corporation.
(31) Nonfiling entity means an unincorporated entity that is of a type that is not created by filing a public organic document.
(32) Nonprofit corporation or domestic nonprofit corporation means a corporation incorporated under the laws of this state and subject to the provisions of the Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act.
(33) Notice is defined in section 21-215 .
(34) Organic document means a public organic document or a private organic document.
(35) Organic law means the statute governing the internal affairs of a domestic or foreign business or nonprofit corporation or unincorporated entity.
(36) 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:
(i) Solely by reason of the person's status as a shareholder, member, or interest holder; or
(ii) By the 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, members, or interest holders liable in their capacity as shareholders, members, or interest holders for all or specified debts, obligations, or liabilities of the entity.
(37) Person includes an individual and an entity.
(38) Principal office means the office, in or out of this state, so designated in the biennial report where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign corporation are located.
(39) 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.
(40) Public organic document means the document, if any, that is filed of public record to create an unincorporated entity. Where a public organic document has been amended or restated, the term means the public organic document as last amended or restated.
(41) Proceeding includes civil suit and criminal, administrative, and investigatory action.
(42) 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.
(43) Qualified director is defined in section 21-217 .
(44) Record date means the date established under sections 21-237 to 21-252 or 21-253 to 21-283 on which a corporation determines the identity of its shareholders and their shareholdings for purposes of the Nebraska Model Business Corporation Act. 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.
(45) Record shareholder means (i) the person in whose name shares are registered in the records of the corporation or (ii) the person identified as the beneficial owner of shares in a beneficial ownership certificate pursuant to section 21-265 on file with the corporation to the extent of the rights granted by such certificate.
(46) Secretary means the corporate officer to whom the board of directors has delegated responsibility under subsection (c) of section 21-2,105 for custody of the minutes of the meetings of the board of directors and of the shareholders and for authenticating records of the corporation.
(47) Shareholder means, unless varied for purposes of a specific provision, a record shareholder.
(48) Shares means the units into which the proprietary interests in a corporation are divided.
(49) Sign or signature means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a document:
(i) To execute or adopt a tangible symbol to a document, and includes any manual, facsimile, or conformed signature; or
(ii) 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.
(50) 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.
(51) Subscriber means a person who subscribes for shares in a corporation, whether before or after incorporation.
(52) Unincorporated entity means an organization or artificial legal person that either has a separate legal existence or has the power to acquire an estate in real property in its own name 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, or a foreign government. The term includes a general partnership, limited liability company, limited partnership, business trust, joint-stock association, and unincorporated nonprofit association.
(53) United States includes district, authority, bureau, commission, department, and any other agency of the United States.
(54) Voting group means all shares of one or more classes or series that under the articles of incorporation or the act 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 the act to vote generally on the matter are for that purpose a single voting group.
(55) Voting power means the current power to vote in the election of directors.
(56) Voting trust beneficial owner means an owner of a beneficial interest in shares of the corporation held in a voting trust established pursuant to subsection (a) of section 21-272 . 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.
(57) Writing or written means any information in the form of a document.

Legislative History

Source: Laws 2014, LB749, § 14; Laws 2016, LB794, § 2; Laws 2017, LB35, § 2. Cross References: Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act, see section 21-1901.