55A-8-50. 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 domestic or foreign corporation absorbed in a merger which, if its separate existence had continued, would have had the obligation or power to indemnify its directors, officers, employees, or agents, so that a person who would have been entitled to receive or request indemnification from such corporation if its separate existence had continued shall stand in the same position under this Part with respect to the surviving corporation.

(2) "Director" 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 business or nonprofit 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 the director's duties to the corporation also impose duties on, or otherwise involve services by, the director to the plan or to participants in or beneficiaries of the plan. "Director" includes, unless the context requires otherwise, the estate or personal representative of a director.

(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 actually incurred with respect to a proceeding.

(5) "Officer," "employee," or "agent" includes, unless the context requires otherwise, the estate or personal representative of a person who acted in that capacity.

(6) "Official capacity" means: (i) when used with respect to a director, the office of director in a corporation; and (ii) when used with respect to an individual other than a director, as contemplated in G.S. 55A-8-56, 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 business or nonprofit corporation or any partnership, joint venture, trust, employee benefit plan, or other enterprise.

(7) "Party" includes an individual who was, is, or is threatened to be made a named defendant or respondent in a proceeding.

(8) "Proceeding" means any threatened, pending, or completed action, suit, or proceeding whether civil, criminal, administrative, or investigative and whether formal or informal.