Opinion ID: 3015384
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Exculpatory Charter Provision

Text: Apparently for the first time on appeal, the directors and officers argue that Tower Air’s certificate of incorporation contained an exculpatory charter provision established pursuant to 8 Del. C. § 102(b)(7) (authorizing a certificate of liability on directors of a corporation for a breach of the duty of care . . , [b]ut the facts alleged in the complaint do not implicate merely negligent or grossly negligent decision making by corporate directors). Cf. In re Caremark, 698 A.2d at 967 n.16 (“The vocabulary of negligence while often employed, e.g., [in Aronson], is not well suited to judicial review of board attentiveness . . . .”). So long as the Supreme Court of Delaware uses the term, however, we will. -26- incorporation to contain “[a] provision eliminating or limiting the personal liability of a director to the corporation or its stockholders for monetary damages for breach of fiduciary duty as a director . . . .”). Neither of the District Court’s opinions mentions this issue. We decline to address it today because “we generally decline to address arguments for the first time on appeal,” Lauderbaugh v. Hopewell Twp., 319 F.3d 568, 574 (3d Cir. 2003), and because the protection of an exculpatory charter provision appears to be in the nature of an affirmative defense. As we have said, affirmative defenses generally will not form the basis for dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6). See In re Adams Golf Inc. Sec. Litig., 381 F.3d at 277.