LIABILITIES FOR TRANSACTIONS BEFORE INCORPORATION

LIABILITIES FOR TRANSACTIONS BEFORE INCORPORATION

A.PROMOTERS--a promoter participates in the formation of the corp, usually arranging compliance with the legal requirements of formation, securing initial capital, and entering into necessary contracts on behalf of the corp during the time it’s being formed.

a)Fiduciary Duties to Each Other--Full disclosure and fair dealing are required between the promoters and the corp and among promoters themselves.

B.CONTRACTS MADE BY PROMOTERS ON CORP’S BEHALF

1.RIGHTS AND LIABILITIES OF CORPORATION:

a)English Rule--the corp is not directly liable on pre-incorporation contracts even if later ratified. Rationale: the corp was not yet in existence at the time the promoter was acting.

b)American Rule--the corp is liable if it later ratifies or adopts pre-incorporation K.

c)Corporation’s Right to Enforce Contract--under either rule, the corp may enforce the contract against the party with whom the promoter contracted, if it chooses to do so.

2.RIGHTS AND LIABILITIES OF PROMOTERS.

a)Liability on Pre-incorporation Contract--generally, promoters are liable if the corp rejects the pre-incorporation contract, fails to incorporate, or adopts a contract but fails to perform, unless the contracting party clearly intended to contract with the corporation only and not with the promoters individually.

b)Right to Enforce Against the Other Party--if a corp is not formed, the promoter may still enforce the contract.

C.OBLIGATIONS OF PREDECESSOR BUSINESS--a corporation that acquires all of the assets of a predecessor business does not ordinarily succeed to its liabilities, with exceptions:

a)Exceptions--the successor corp may be liable for its predecessor liabilities if:

1)the new corp expressly or impliedly assumes the predecessor obligations (the creditors of the old corp may hold the new corp liable as third-party beneficiaries);

2)the sale was an attempted fraud on the creditors; or

3)the predecessor is merged into or absorbed by the successor.

IV.POWERS OF THE CORPORATION.

A.CORPORATE POWERS--generally, corporate purposes and powers are those expressly set forth in the corporation’s articles, those conferred by the statute, and the implied powers necessary to carry out the express powers. Transactions beyond the purposes and powers of the corporation are ultra vires.

1.TRADITIONAL PROBLEM AREAS--the following three powers are particularly significant express powers, since older statutes did not specifically confer them:

a)Guarantees--modern statutes confer the power to guarantee the debts of others if it is in furtherance of the corporate business;

b)Participation in a Partnership--present-day statutes explicitly allow the corp to participate with others in any corp, partnership, or other association;

c)Donations--because the general rule is that the objective of a business corporation is to conduct business activity with a view to profit, early cases held that charitable contributions were ultra vires; the modern view permits reasonable donations without showing the probability of a direct benefit to the corp.

B.AGENCY