Terms Used In Vermont Statutes > Title 11A > Chapter 21 - Benefit Corporations

• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Articles of incorporation: include amended and restated articles of incorporation, articles of merger, and special charters. See
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Benefit corporation: means a corporation as defined in section 1. See
• Benefit director: means :

• benefit enforcement proceeding: means a claim or action against a director or officer for:

• Benefit officer: means the officer of a benefit corporation, if any, designated as the benefit officer as provided in section 21. See
• 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.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Domestic: when applied to a corporation, company, association, or copartnership shall mean organized under the laws of this State; "foreign" when so applied, shall mean organized under the laws of another state, government, or country. See
• Employee: includes an officer but not a director. See
• Entity: includes corporation and foreign corporation; not-for-profit corporation; profit and not-for-profit unincorporated association; business trust, estate, partnership, trust, and two or more persons having a joint or common economic interest; and state, United States, and foreign government. See
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
• General public benefit: means a material positive impact on society and the environment, as measured by a third-party standard, through activities that promote some combination of specific public benefits. See
• Independent: means that a person has no material relationship with a benefit corporation or any of its subsidiaries (other than the relationship of serving as the benefit director or benefit officer), either directly or as an owner or manager of an entity that has a material relationship with the benefit corporation or any of its subsidiaries. See
• Individual: includes the estate of an individual who is incompetent or deceased. See
• Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Magistrate: shall mean any Supreme Court Justice, Superior judge, District judge, or Probate judge. See
• Meeting: means any structured communications conducted by participants in person or through the use of electronic or telecommunications medium permitting simultaneous or sequentially structured communications for the purpose of reaching a collective agreement. See
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• 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.
• Person: includes individual and entity. See
• Proceeding: includes civil suit and criminal, administrative, and investigatory action. See
• real estate: as used in this chapter shall mean such lands, tenements, rights, and estates as are made liable to execution by section 2781 of this title. See
• said: when used by way of reference to a person or thing shall apply to the same person or thing last mentioned. See
• Shareholder: means the person in whose name shares are registered in the records of a corporation or upon presentation for registration are entitled to be registered in the records of a corporation. See
• Specific public benefit: includes :

• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Tenancy in common: A type of property ownership in which two or more individuals have an undivided interest in property. At the death of one tenant in common, his (her) fractional percentage of ownership in the property passes to the decedent
• Third-party standard: means a recognized standard for defining, reporting, and assessing corporate social and environmental performance that:

• Town: shall include city and wards or precincts therein; "selectboard members" and "board of civil authority" shall extend to and include the mayor and aldermen of cities; "trustees" shall extend to and include bailiffs of incorporated villages; and the laws applicable to the inhabitants and officers of towns shall be applicable to the inhabitants and similar officers of all municipal corporations. See
• Voting group: means all shares of one or more classes or series that under the articles of incorporation or this title are entitled to vote and be counted together collectively on a matter at a meeting of shareholders. See
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.