48-18-502 - Authority to indemnify. - Tennessee Statutes

48-18-502. Authority to indemnify.

(a)  Except as provided in subsection (d), a corporation may indemnify an individual made a party to a proceeding because the individual is or was a director against liability incurred in the proceeding if:

     (1)  The individual's conduct was in good faith; and

     (2)  The individual reasonably believed:

          (A)  In the case of conduct in the individual's official capacity with the corporation, that the individual's conduct was in its best interest; and

          (B)  In all other cases, that the individual's conduct was at least not opposed to its best interests; and

     (3)  In the case of any criminal proceeding, the individual had no reasonable cause to believe the individual's conduct was unlawful.

(b)  A director's conduct with respect to an employee benefit plan for a purpose the director reasonably believed to be in the interests of the participants in and beneficiaries of the plan is conduct that satisfies the requirement of subdivision (a)(2)(B).

(c)  The termination of a proceeding by judgment, order, settlement, conviction, or upon a plea of nolo contendere or its equivalent is not, of itself, determinative that the director did not meet the standard of conduct described in this section.

(d)  A corporation may not indemnify a director under this section:

     (1)  In connection with a proceeding by or in the right of the corporation in which the director was adjudged liable to the corporation; or

     (2)  In connection with any other proceeding charging improper personal benefit to the director, whether or not involving action in the director's official capacity, in which the director was adjudged liable on the basis that personal benefit was improperly received by the director.

[Acts 1986, ch. 887, § 8.51.]