Sec. 8. (a) A corporation may indemnify an individual made a party to a proceeding because the individual is or was a director against liability incurred in the proceeding if:

(1) the individual’s conduct was in good faith; and

Terms Used In Indiana Code 23-1-37-8

  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • 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.
  • corporation: includes any domestic or foreign predecessor entity of a corporation in a merger or other transaction in which the predecessor's existence ceased upon consummation of the transaction. See Indiana Code 23-1-37-1
  • Director: includes , unless the context requires otherwise, the estate or personal representative of a director. See Indiana Code 23-1-37-2
  • Judgment: means all final orders, decrees, and determinations in an action and all orders upon which executions may issue. See Indiana Code 1-1-4-5
  • 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. See Indiana Code 23-1-37-4
  • Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
  • official capacity: means :

    Indiana Code 23-1-37-5

  • party: includes an individual who was, is, or is threatened to be made a named defendant or respondent in a proceeding. See Indiana Code 23-1-37-6
  • Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
  • proceeding: means any threatened, pending, or completed action, suit, or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative, or investigative and whether formal or informal. See Indiana Code 23-1-37-7
  • 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.
(2) the individual reasonably believed:

(A) in the case of conduct in the individual’s official capacity with the corporation, that the individual’s conduct was in its best interests; and

(B) in all other cases, that the individual’s conduct was at least not opposed to its best interests; and

(3) in the case of any criminal proceeding, the individual either:

(A) had reasonable cause to believe the individual’s conduct was lawful; or

(B) had no reasonable cause to believe the individual’s conduct was unlawful.

     (b) A director’s conduct with respect to an employee benefit plan for a purpose the director reasonably believed to be in the interests of the participants in and beneficiaries of the plan is conduct that satisfies the requirement of subsection (a)(2)(B).

     (c) The termination of a proceeding by judgment, order, settlement, conviction, or upon a plea of nolo contendere or its equivalent is not, of itself, determinative that the director did not meet the standard of conduct described in this section.

As added by P.L.149-1986, SEC.21.