Mississippi Code 1972 (2023) › Title 79 - CORPORATIONS, ASSOCIATIONS, AND PARTNERSHIPS (§§ 79-1-1 — 79-37-604) › Chapter 4 - MISSISSIPPI BUSINESS CORPORATION ACT (§§ 79-4-1.01 — 79-4-17.05) › Article 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS (§§ 79-4-1.01 — 79-4-1.50) › Subarticle D - DEFINITIONS (§§ 79-4-1.40 — 79-4-1.44) › Section 79-4-1.40 - Act definitions

In Section
79-4-1.01
et seq.:
(1)
"Articles of incorporation" means the original articles of incorporation, all amendments thereof, and any other documents permitted or required to be filed by a domestic business corporation with the Secretary of State under any provision of this chapter except Section
79-4-16.22
. If an amendment of the articles or any other document filed under this chapter restates the articles in their entirety, thenceforth the "articles" shall not include any prior documents.
(2)
"Authorized shares" means the shares of all classes a domestic or foreign corporation is authorized to issue.
(3)
"Conspicuous" means so written, displayed, or presented that a reasonable person against whom the writing is to operate should have noticed it. For example, text in italics, boldface, contrasting color, capitals or underlined, is conspicuous.
(4)
"Corporation" or "domestic corporation" means a corporation for profit, which is not a foreign corporation, incorporated under or subject to the provisions of Section
79-4-1.01
et seq.
(5)
"Deliver" or "delivery" means any method of delivery used in conventional commercial practice, including delivery by hand, mail, commercial delivery and, if authorized in accordance with Section
79-4-1.41
, by electronic transmission.
(6)
"Distribution" means a direct or indirect transfer of money or other property (except its own shares) or incurrence of indebtedness by a corporation to or for the benefit of its shareholders in respect of any of its shares. A distribution may be in the form of a declaration or payment of a dividend; a purchase, redemption or other acquisition of shares; a distribution of indebtedness; or otherwise.
(7)
"Documents" means
(i)
any tangible medium on which information is inscribed, and includes any writing or written instruments, or
(ii)
an electronic record.
(8)
"Domestic unincorporated entity" means an unincorporated entity whose internal affairs are governed by the laws of this state.
(9)
"Effective date of notice" is defined in Section
79-4-1.41
.
(10)
"Electronic" means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities.
(11)
"Electronic record" means information that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in paper form through an automated process used in conventional commercial practice, unless otherwise authorized in accordance with Section
79-4-1.41(j)
.
(12)
"Electronic transmission" or "electronically transmitted" means any form or process of communication, not directly involving the physical transfer of paper or another tangible medium, which (i) is suitable for the retention, retrieval and reproduction of information by the recipient, and (ii) is retrievable in paper form by the recipient through an automated process used in conventional commercial practice, unless otherwise authorized in accordance with Section
79-4-1.41(j)
.
(13)
"Eligible entity" means a domestic or foreign unincorporated entity or a domestic or foreign nonprofit corporation.
(14)
"Eligible interest" means interests or membership.
(15)
"Employee" includes an officer but not a director. A director may accept duties that make him also an employee.
(16)
"Expenses" means reasonable expenses of any kind that are incurred in connection with a matter.
(17)
"Entity" includes domestic and foreign business corporation; domestic and foreign nonprofit corporation; estate; trust; business trust; domestic and foreign unincorporated entity; two (2) or more persons having a joint or common economic interest, and state, United States, and foreign government.
(18)
"Facts objectively ascertainable" outside of a filed document or plan is defined in Section
79-4-1.20(k)
.
(19)
"Filing entity" means another entity that is of a type that is created by filing a public organic document.
(20)
"Foreign corporation" means a corporation incorporated under a law other than the law of this state, which would be a business corporation if incorporated under the laws of this state.
(21)
"Foreign nonprofit corporation" means a corporation incorporated under a law other than the law of this state, which would be a nonprofit corporation if incorporated under the laws of this state.
(22)
"Foreign unincorporated entity" means an unincorporated entity whose internal affairs are governed by an organic law of a jurisdiction other than this state.
(23)
"Governmental subdivision" includes authority, county, district and municipality.
(24)
"Includes" denotes a partial definition.
(25)
"Individual" means a natural person, and includes the estate of an incompetent or deceased natural person.
(26)
"Interest" means either or both of the following rights under the organic law of an unincorporated entity:
(i)
The right to receive distributions from the entity either in the ordinary course or upon liquidation; or
(ii)
The right to receive notice or vote on issues involving its internal affairs, other than as an agent, assignee, proxy, or person responsible for managing its business and affairs.
(27)
"Means" denotes an exhaustive definition.
(28)
"Membership" means the rights of a member in a domestic or foreign nonprofit corporation.
(29)
"Nonprofit corporation" or "domestic nonprofit corporation" means a corporation incorporated under the laws of this state and subject to the provisions of Section
79-11-101
et seq.
(30)
"Notice" is defined in Section
79-4-1.41
.
(31)
"Organic law" means the statute governing the internal affairs of a domestic or foreign business or nonprofit corporation or unincorporated entity.
(32)
"Person" includes an individual and an entity.
(33)
"Principal office" means the office (in or out of this state) so designated in the annual report where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign corporation are located.
(34)
"Proceeding" includes civil suit and criminal, administrative and investigatory action.
(35)
"Public corporation" means a corporation that has shares listed on a national securities exchange or regularly traded in a market maintained by one or more members of a national securities association.
(36)
"Qualified director" is defined in Section
79-4-1.43
.
(37)
"Record date" means the date established under Article 6 or 7 on which a corporation determines the identity of its shareholders and their shareholdings for purposes of Section
79-4-1.01
et seq. The determinations shall be made as of the close of business on the record date unless another time for doing so is specified when the record date is fixed.
(38)
"Secretary" means the corporate officer to whom the board of directors has delegated responsibility under Section
79-4-8.40(c)
for custody of the minutes of the meetings of the board of directors and of the shareholders and for authenticating records of the corporation.
(39)
"Shares" means the unit into which the proprietary interests in a corporation are divided.
(40)
"Shareholder" means the person in whose name shares are registered in the records of a corporation or the beneficial owner of shares to the extent of the rights granted by a nominee certificate on file with a corporation.
(41)
"Sign" or "signature" means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a document:
(i)
To execute or adopt a tangible symbol to a document, and includes any manual, facsimile, or conformed signature; or
(ii)
To attach to or logically associate with an electronic transmission an electronic sound, symbol, or process, and includes an electronic signature in an electronic transmission.
(42)
"State," when referring to a part of the United States, includes a state and commonwealth (and their agencies and governmental subdivisions) and a territory, and insular possession (and their agencies and governmental subdivisions) of the United States.
(43)
"Subscriber" means a person who subscribes for shares in a corporation, whether before or after incorporation.
(44)
"Unincorporated entity" means an organization or artificial legal person that either has a separate legal existence or has the power to acquire an estate in real property in its own name and that is not any of the following: a domestic or foreign business or nonprofit corporation, an estate, a trust, a state, the United States, or a foreign government. The term includes a general partnership, limited liability company, limited partnership, business trust, joint-stock association and unincorporated nonprofit association.
(45)
"United States" includes district, authority, bureau, commission, department and any other agency of the United States.
(46)
"Voting group" means all shares of one or more classes or series that under the articles of incorporation or Section
79-4-1.01
et seq. are entitled to vote and be counted together collectively on a matter at a meeting of shareholders. All shares entitled by the articles of incorporation or Section
79-4-1.01
et seq. to vote generally on the matter are for that purpose a single voting group.
(47)
"Voting power" means the current power to vote in the election of directors.
(48)
"Writing" or "written" means any information in the form of a document.
Laws, 1987, ch. 486, § 1.40; Laws, 1988, ch. 369, § 1; Laws, 1997, ch. 418, § 6; Laws, 2000, ch. 469, § 1; Laws, 2004, ch. 495, § 2; Laws, 2006, ch. 429, § 1; Laws, 2007, ch. 361, § 1; Laws, 2012, ch. 481, § 4, eff. 1/1/2013.