Terms Used In Wisconsin Statutes 180.0828

  • 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.
  • Following: when used by way of reference to any statute section, means the section next following that in which the reference is made. See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
  • Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
  • Person: includes all partnerships, associations and bodies politic or corporate. See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
   (1)    Except as provided in sub. (2), a director is not liable to the corporation, its shareholders, or any person asserting rights on behalf of the corporation or its shareholders, for damages, settlements, fees, fines, penalties or other monetary liabilities arising from a breach of, or failure to perform, any duty resulting solely from his or her status as a director, unless the person asserting liability proves that the breach or failure to perform constitutes any of the following:
      (a)    A willful failure to deal fairly with the corporation or its shareholders in connection with a matter in which the director has a material conflict of interest.
      (b)    A violation of criminal law, unless the director had reasonable cause to believe that his or her conduct was lawful or no reasonable cause to believe that his or her conduct was unlawful.
      (c)    A transaction from which the director derived an improper personal profit.
      (d)    Willful misconduct.
   (2)   A corporation may limit the immunity provided under this section by its articles of incorporation. A limitation under this subsection applies if the cause of action against a director accrues while the limitation is in effect.