Category Archives: Misc. Codes & Regs

Corporations Code Section 7612. Membership in Multiple Names.

If a membership stands of record in the names of two or more persons, whether fiduciaries, members of a partnership, joint tenants, tenants in common, husband and wife as community property, tenants by the entirety, persons entitled to vote under a voting agreement or otherwise, or if two or more persons (including proxyholders) have the same fiduciary relationship respecting the same membership, unless the secretary of the corporation is given written notice to the contrary and is furnished with a copy of the instrument or order appointing them or creating the relationship wherein it is so provided, their acts with respect to voting shall have the following effect: (a) If only one votes, such act binds all; or (b) If more than one vote, the act of the majority so voting binds all.

Corporations Code Section 7611. Record Date; Eligibility to Vote.

(a) The bylaws may provide or, in the absence of such provision, the board may fix, in advance, a date as the record date for the purpose of determining the members entitled to notice of any meeting of members. Such record date shall not be more than 90 nor less than 10 days before the date of the meeting. If no record date is fixed, members at the close of business on the business day preceding the day on which notice is given or, if notice is waived, at the close of business on the business day preceding the day on which the meeting is held are entitled to notice of a meeting of members. A determination of members entitled to notice of a meeting of members shall apply to any adjournment of the meeting unless the board fixes a new record date for the adjourned meeting.

(b) The bylaws may provide or, in the absence of such provision, the board may fix, in advance, a date as the record date for the purpose of determining the members entitled to vote at a meeting of members. Such record date shall not be more than 60 days before the date of the meeting. Such record date shall also apply in the case of an adjournment of the meeting unless the board fixes a new record date for the adjourned meeting. If no record date is fixed, members on the day of the meeting who are otherwise eligible to vote are entitled to vote at the meeting of members or, in the case of an adjourned meeting, members on the day of the adjourned meeting who are otherwise eligible to vote are entitled to vote at the adjourned meeting of members.

(c) The bylaws may provide or, in the absence of such provision, the board may fix, in advance, a date as the record date for the purpose of determining the members entitled to cast written ballots (Section 7513). Such record date shall not be more than 60 days before the day on which the first written ballot is mailed or solicited. If no record date is fixed, members on the day the first written ballot is mailed or solicited who are otherwise eligible to vote are entitled to cast written ballots.

(d) The bylaws may provide or, in the absence of such provision, the board may fix, in advance, a date as the record date for the purpose of determining the members entitled to exercise any rights in respect of any other lawful action. Such record date shall not be more than 60 days prior to such other action. If no record date is fixed, members at the close of business on the day on which the board adopts the resolution relating thereto, or the 60th day prior to the date of such other action, whichever is later, are entitled to exercise such rights.

Corporations Code Section 7527. Time Limitation on Contesting Election.

An action challenging the validity of any election, appointment or removal of a director or directors must be commenced within nine months after the election, appointment or removal. If no such action is commenced, in the absence of fraud, any election, appointment or removal of a director is conclusively presumed valid nine months thereafter.

Corporations Code Section 7525. Liability for Content of Election Materials; Refusal to Mail.

(a) This section shall apply to corporations publishing or mailing materials on behalf of any nominee in connection with procedures for the nomination and election of directors.

(b) Neither the corporation, nor its agents, officers, directors, or employees, may be held criminally liable, liable for any negligence (active or passive) or otherwise liable for damages to any person on account of any material which is supplied by a nominee for director and which it mails or publishes in procedures intended to comply with Section 7520 or pursuant to Section 7523 or 7524 but the nominee on whose behalf such material was published or mailed shall be liable and shall indemnify and hold the corporation, its agents, officers, directors, and employees and each of them harmless from all demands, costs, including reasonable legal fees and expenses, claims, damages and causes of action arising out of such material or any such mailing or publication.

(c) Nothing in this section shall prevent a corporation or any of its agents, officers, directors, or employees from seeking a court order providing that the corporation need not mail or publish material tendered by or on behalf of a nominee under this article on the ground the material will expose the moving party to liability.

Corporations Code Section 7524. Request to Mail Election Materials.

A corporation with 500 or more members may provide that upon written request by any nominee for election to the board and the payment of the reasonable costs of mailing (including postage), the corporation shall within 10 business days after such request (provided payment has been made) mail to all members, or such portion of them as the nominee may reasonably specify, any material, which the nominee may furnish and which is reasonably related to the election, unless the corporation within five business days after the request allows the nominee, at the corporation’s option, the rights set forth in either paragraph (1) or (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 8330.

Corporations Code Section 7523. Publication of Election Materials Soliciting Votes.

Where a corporation with 500 or more members publishes any material soliciting a vote for any nominee for director in any publication owned or controlled by the corporation, the corporation may provide that it shall make available to all other nominees, in the same issue of the publication, an equal amount of space, with equal prominence, to be used by the nominee for a purpose reasonably related to the election.

Corporations Code Section 7522. Close of Nominations; Declaration of Nominees Elected to Board.

A corporation with 5,000 or more members may provide that, in any election of a director or directors by members of the corporation except for an election authorized by Section 7152 or 7153:

(a) The corporation’s articles or bylaws shall set a date for the close of nominations for the board. The date shall not be less than 50 nor more than 120 days before the day directors are to be elected. No nominations for the board can be made after the date set for the close of nominations.

(b) If more people are nominated for the board than can be elected, the election shall take place by means of a procedure which allows all nominees a reasonable opportunity to solicit votes and all members a reasonable opportunity to choose among the nominees.

(c) A nominee shall have a reasonable opportunity to communicate to the members the nominee’s qualifications and the reasons for the nominee’s candidacy.

(d) If after the close of nominations the number of people nominated for the board is not more than the number of directors to be elected, the corporation may without further action declare that those nominated and qualified to be elected have been elected.

Corporations Code Section 7521. Nomination.

A corporation with 500 or more members may provide that, except for directors who are elected as authorized by Section 7152 or 7153, and except as provided in Section 7522, any person who is qualified to be elected to the board of directors of the corporation may be nominated:

(a) By any method authorized by the bylaws, or if no method is set forth in the bylaws by any method authorized by the board.

(b) By petition delivered to an officer of the corporation, signed within 11 months preceding the next time directors will be elected, by members representing the following number of votes:

Number of Votes Eligible  to be Cast for Director Disregarding any Provision for Cumulative Voting

Number of Votes
Under 5,000   ……………..   2 percent of voting power
5,000 or more ……………..  one-twentieth of 1 percent
of voting power but not less than 100.

This subdivision does not apply to a corporation described in subdivision (c).

(c) Incorporations with one million or more members engaged primarily in the business of retail merchandising of consumer goods, by petition delivered to an officer of the corporation, signed within 11 months preceding the next time directors will be elected, by such reasonable number of members as is set forth in the bylaws, or if no number is set forth in the bylaws, by such reasonable number of members as is determined by the directors.

(d) If there is a meeting to elect directors, by any member present at the meeting in person or by proxy if proxies are permitted.