(a) No limitation upon the business, purposes or powers of the corporation or upon the powers of the shareholders, officers or directors, or the manner of exercise of such powers, contained in or implied by the articles or by Chapters 18, 19 and 20 or by any shareholders’ agreement shall be asserted as between the corporation or any shareholder and any third person, except in a proceeding (1) by a shareholder or the state to enjoin the doing or continuation of unauthorized business by the corporation or its officers, or both, in cases where third parties have not acquired rights thereby, or (2) to dissolve the corporation or (3) by the corporation or by a shareholder suing in a representative suit against the officers or directors of the corporation for violation of their authority.

(b) Any contract or conveyance made in the name of a corporation which is authorized or ratified by the board, or is done within the scope of the authority, actual or apparent, conferred by the board or within the agency power of the officer executing it, except as the board’s authority is limited by law other than this division, binds the corporation, and the corporation acquires rights thereunder, whether the contract is executed or wholly or in part executory.

Terms Used In California Corporations Code 208

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • 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.
  • executed: when used with respect to the documents filed pursuant to this code or pursuant to regulations adopted under this code, and presented to the Secretary of State, include a document bearing a signature under subdivision (a). See California Corporations Code 17.1
  • Person: includes a corporation as well as a natural person. See California Corporations Code 18
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Education Code 77

(c) This section applies to contracts and conveyances made by foreign corporations in this state and to all conveyances by foreign corporations of real property situated in this state.

(Added by Stats. 1975, Ch. 682.)