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§13.1-603. Definitions


Published: 2015

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§ 13.1-603. Definitions.

In this chapter:
"Articles of incorporation" means all documents constituting, at any particular time, the charter of a corporation. It includes the original charter issued by the General Assembly, a court or the Commission and all amendments including certificates of consolidation, serial designation, reduction, correction, and merger. It excludes articles of share exchange filed by an acquiring corporation. When the articles of incorporation have been restated pursuant to any articles of restatement, amendment, domestication, or merger, it includes only the restated articles of incorporation, including any articles of serial designation, without the accompanying articles of restatement, amendment, domestication, or merger.
"Authorized shares" means the shares of all classes a domestic or foreign corporation is authorized to issue.
"Certificate," when relating to articles filed with the Commission, means the order of the Commission that makes the articles effective, together with the articles.
"Commission" means the State Corporation Commission of Virginia.
"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 that is italicized, is in boldface, contrasting colors, or capitals, or is underlined, is conspicuous.
"Corporation" or "domestic corporation" means a corporation authorized by law to issue shares, irrespective of the nature of the business to be transacted, organized under this chapter or existing pursuant to the laws of the Commonwealth on January 1, 1986, or which, by virtue of articles of incorporation, amendment, or merger, has become a domestic corporation of the Commonwealth, even though also being a corporation organized under laws other than the laws of the Commonwealth, or which has become a domestic corporation of the Commonwealth pursuant to Article 12.1 (§ 13.1-722.2 et seq.) or Article 12.2 (§ 13.1-722.8 et seq.) of this chapter.
"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 § 13.1-610, electronic transmission.
"Derivative proceeding" means a civil suit in the right of a domestic corporation or, to the extent provided in Article 8.1 (§ 13.1-672.1 et seq.) of Chapter 9 of this title, a foreign corporation.
"Disinterested director" means, except with respect to Article 14 (§ 13.1-725 et seq.) of this chapter, a director who, at the time action is to be taken under § 13.1-672.4, 13.1-691, 13.1-699 or 13.1-701, does not have (i) a financial interest in a matter that is the subject of such action or (ii) a familial, financial, professional, employment or other relationship with a person who has a financial interest in the matter, either of which would reasonably be expected to affect adversely the objectivity of the director when participating in the action, and if the action is to be taken under § 13.1-699 or 13.1-701, is also not a party to the proceeding. The presence of one or more of the following circumstances shall not by itself prevent a person from being a disinterested director: (i) nomination or election of the director to the current board by any person, acting alone or participating with others, who is so interested in the matter; (ii) service as a director of another corporation of which an interested person is also a director; or (iii) at the time action is to be taken under § 13.1-672.4, status as a named defendant, as a director against whom action is demanded, or as a director who approved the act being challenged.
"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 of the corporation; or otherwise. Distribution does not include acquisition by a corporation of its shares from the estate or personal representative of a deceased shareholder, or any other shareholder, but only to the extent the acquisition is effected using the proceeds of insurance on the life of such deceased shareholder and the board of directors approved the policy and the terms of the redemption prior to the shareholder's death.
"Document" means (i) any tangible medium on which information is inscribed, and includes any writing or written instrument, or (ii) an electronic record.
"Domestic business trust" has the same meaning as specified in § 13.1-1201.
"Domestic limited liability company" has the same meaning as specified in § 13.1-1002.
"Domestic limited partnership" has the same meaning as specified in § 50-73.1.
"Domestic nonstock corporation" has the same meaning as "domestic corporation" as specified in § 13.1-803.
"Domestic partnership" means an association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners a business for profit formed under § 50-73.88, or predecessor law of the Commonwealth, and includes, for all purposes of the laws of the Commonwealth, a registered limited liability partnership.
"Effective date of notice" is defined in § 13.1-610.
"Electronic" means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities.
"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 J of § 13.1-610.
"Electronic transmission" or "electronically transmitted" means any form or process of communication, not directly involving the physical transfer of paper or other tangible medium, that (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 J of § 13.1-610.
"Eligible entity" means a domestic or foreign unincorporated entity or a domestic or foreign nonstock corporation.
"Eligible interests" means interests or memberships.
"Employee" includes, unless otherwise provided in the bylaws, an officer but not a director. A director may accept duties that make him also an employee.
"Entity" includes any domestic or foreign corporation; any domestic or foreign nonstock corporation; any domestic or foreign unincorporated entity; any estate or trust; and any state, the United States and any foreign government.
"Foreign business trust" has the same meaning as specified in § 13.1-1201.
"Foreign corporation" means a corporation authorized by law to issue shares, organized under laws other than the laws of the Commonwealth.
"Foreign limited liability company" has the same meaning as specified in § 13.1-1002.
"Foreign limited partnership" has the same meaning as specified in § 50-73.1.
"Foreign nonstock corporation" has the same meaning as "foreign corporation" as specified in § 13.1-803.
"Foreign partnership" means an association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners of a business for profit formed under the laws of any state or jurisdiction other than the Commonwealth, and includes, for all purposes of the laws of the Commonwealth, a foreign registered limited liability partnership.
"Foreign registered limited liability partnership" has the same meaning as specified in § 50-73.79.
"Foreign unincorporated entity" means an unincorporated entity whose internal affairs are governed by an organic law of a jurisdiction other than the Commonwealth.
"Government subdivision" includes authority, county, district, and municipality.
"Includes" denotes a partial definition.
"Individual" means a natural person.
"Interest" means either or both of the following rights under the organic law of an unincorporated entity:
1. The right to receive distributions from the entity either in the ordinary course or upon liquidation; or
2. 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.
"Means" denotes an exhaustive definition.
"Membership" means the rights of a member in a domestic or foreign nonstock corporation or limited liability company.
"Notice" is defined in § 13.1-610.
"Organic document" means the document, if any, that is filed of public record to create an unincorporated entity. Where an organic document has been amended or restated, the term means the organic document as last amended or restated.
"Organic law" means the statute governing the internal affairs of a domestic or foreign corporation or eligible entity.
"Person" includes an individual and an entity.
"Principal office" means the office, in or out of the Commonwealth, where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign corporation are located, or, if there are no such offices, the office, in or out of the Commonwealth, so designated by the board of directors. The designation of the principal office in the most recent annual report filed pursuant to § 13.1-775 shall be conclusive for purposes of this chapter.
"Proceeding" includes civil suit and criminal, administrative, and investigatory action conducted by a governmental agency.
"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 or affiliated securities association.
"Record date" means the date established under Article 7 (§ 13.1-638 et seq.) or Article 8 (§ 13.1-654 et seq.) of this chapter on which a corporation determines the identity of its shareholders and their shareholdings for purposes of this chapter. The determination shall be made as of the close of business at the principal office of the corporation on the record date unless another time for doing so is specified when the record date is fixed.
"Shareholder" means the person in whose name shares are registered in the records of the corporation, the beneficial owner of shares to the extent of the rights granted by a nominee certificate on file with a corporation, or the beneficial owner of shares held in a voting trust.
"Shares" means the units into which the proprietary interests in a corporation are divided.
"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.
"State" when referring to a part of the United States, includes a state, commonwealth, and the District of Columbia, and their agencies and governmental subdivisions; and a territory or insular possession, and their agencies and governmental subdivisions, of the United States.
"Subscriber" means a person who subscribes for shares in a corporation, whether before or after incorporation.
"Subsidiary" means, as to any corporation, any other corporation of which it owns, directly or indirectly, voting shares entitled to cast a majority of the votes entitled to be cast generally in an election of directors of such other corporation.
"Unincorporated entity" or "domestic unincorporated entity" means a domestic partnership, limited liability company, limited partnership or business trust.
"United States" includes district, authority, bureau, commission, department, and any other agency of the United States.
"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.
"Voting power" means the current power to vote in the election of directors.
"Writing" or "written" means any information in the form of a document.
Code 1950, § 13.1-2; 1956, c. 428; 1962, c. 44; 1975, c. 500; 1985, c. 522; 1992, cc. 575, 802; 1993, c. 200; 1994, c. 122; 1997, cc. 190, 801; 2001, c. 545; 2002, cc. 1, 285; 2003, cc. 340, 728; 2005, c. 765; 2006, c. 663; 2007, c. 165; 2010, c. 782; 2012, c. 706; 2015, c. 611.