North Carolina General Statutes 58-65-166. Policy statement and definitions
(a) It is the public policy of this State to enable corporations organized under this Chapter to attract and maintain responsible, qualified directors, officers, employees, and agents, and, to that end, to permit corporations organized under this Chapter to allocate the risk of personal liability of directors, officers, employees, and agents through indemnification and insurance as authorized in this Part.
(b) Definitions in this Part:
(1) “Corporation” includes any not for profit domestic hospital service corporation, or successor of a corporation in a merger or other transaction in which the predecessor’s existence ceased upon consummation of the transaction.
Terms Used In North Carolina General Statutes 58-65-166
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
- Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. Source: FDIC
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
- state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories, so called; and the words "United States" shall be construed to include the said district and territories and all dependencies. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
(2) “Director” or “Trustee” means an individual who is or was a director of a corporation or an individual who, while a director of a corporation, is or was serving at the corporation’s request as a director, officer, partner, trustee, employee, or agent of another foreign or domestic corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust, employee benefit plan, or other enterprise. A director is considered to be serving an employee benefit plan at the corporation’s request if his duties to the corporation also impose duties on, or otherwise involve services by, him to the plan or to participants in or beneficiaries of the plan. “Director” or “Trustee” includes, unless the context requires otherwise, the estate or personal representative of a director or trustee.
(3) “Expenses” means expenses of every kind incurred in defending a proceeding, including counsel fees.
(4) “Liability” means the obligation to pay a judgment, settlement, penalty, fine (including an excise tax assessed with respect to an employee benefit plan), or reasonable expenses incurred with respect to a proceeding.
(5) “Official capacity” means: (i) when used with respect to a director or trustee, the office of director or trustee in a corporation; and (ii) when used with respect to an individual other than a director or trustee, as contemplated in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-65-172, the office in a corporation held by the officer or the employment or agency relationship undertaken by the employee or agent on behalf of the corporation. “Official capacity” does not include service for any other foreign or domestic corporation or any partnership, joint venture, trust, employee benefit plan, or other enterprise.
(6) “Party” includes an individual who was, is, or is threatened to be made a named defendant or respondent in a proceeding.
(7) “Proceeding” means any threatened, pending, or completed action, suit, or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative, or investigative and whether formal or informal.
(8) “Trustee”. Whenever the term “director” or “directors” is used herein it shall include the term “trustee”, or a person who is designated as a “trustee” under a corporation governed by this Article. (1989 (Reg. Sess., 1990), c. 1071, s. 1; 2021-169, s. 2.)