(a) If a document delivered to the office of the Secretary of State for filing satisfies the requirements of section one hundred twenty of this article, the Secretary of State shall file it.

Terms Used In West Virginia Code 31D-1-125

  • 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.
  • Foreign corporation: means a corporation for profit incorporated under a law other than the laws of this state. See West Virginia Code 31D-1-150
  • Secretary: means the corporate officer to whom the board of directors has delegated responsibility under subsection (c), section eight hundred forty, article eight of this chapter for custody of the minutes of the meetings of the board of directors and the meetings of the shareholders and for authenticating records of the corporation. See West Virginia Code 31D-1-150
  • State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10

(b) The Secretary of State files a document by recording it as filed on the date and time of receipt unless a delayed effective time is specified in the document. After filing a document, except as provided in section five hundred three, article five of this chapter and section one thousand five hundred nine, article fifteen of this chapter, the Secretary of State shall deliver to the domestic or foreign corporation or its representative a receipt for the record and the fees. Upon request and payment of a fee, the Secretary of State shall send to the requester a certified copy of the requested record.

(c) If the Secretary of State refuses to file a document, he or she shall return it to the domestic or foreign corporation or its representative within five days after the document was delivered, together with a brief, written explanation of the reason for his or her refusal.

(d) The Secretary of State's duty to file documents under this section is ministerial. His or her filing or refusing to file a document does not:

(1) Affect the validity or invalidity of the document in whole or in part;

(2) Relate to the correctness or incorrectness of information contained in the document; or

(3) Create a presumption that the document is valid or invalid or that information contained in the document is correct or incorrect.