Revised Code of Washington - RCW Title 23B Washington Business Corporation Act - Section 23B.07.040 Action without meeting

§ 23B.07.040. Action without meeting

(1)(a) Action required or permitted by this title to be taken at a shareholders' meeting may be taken without a meeting or a vote if either:

(i) The action is taken by all shareholders entitled to vote on the action; or

(ii) The action is taken by shareholders holding of record or otherwise entitled to vote in the aggregate not less than the minimum number of votes that would be necessary to authorize or take such action at a meeting at which all shares entitled to vote on the action were present and voted, and at the time the action is taken the corporation is not a public company and is authorized to take such action under this subsection (1)(a)(ii) by a general or limited authorization contained in its articles of incorporation.

(b) The taking of action by shareholders without a meeting or vote must be evidenced by one or more consents, each in the form of a record describing the action taken, executed by shareholders holding of record or otherwise entitled to vote in the aggregate not less than the minimum number of votes necessary in order to take such action by consent under (a)(i) or (ii) of this subsection, and delivered to the corporation for inclusion in the minutes or filing with the corporate records, which consent shall be set forth either (i) in an executed record or (ii) if the corporation has designated an address, location, or system to which the consent may be electronically transmitted and the consent is electronically transmitted to the designated address, location, or system, in an executed electronically transmitted record.

(2) If not otherwise fixed under RCW 23B.07.030 or 23B.07.070, the record date for determining shareholders entitled to take action without a meeting is the date on which the first shareholder consent is executed under subsection (1) of this section. Every consent shall bear the date of execution of each shareholder who executes the consent. A consent is not effective to take the action referred to in the consent unless, within sixty days of the earliest dated consent delivered to the corporation, consents executed by a sufficient number of shareholders to take action are delivered to the corporation.

(3) A shareholder may withdraw consent only by delivering a notice of withdrawal in the form of a record to the corporation prior to the time when consents sufficient to authorize taking the action have been delivered to the corporation.

(4) Unless the shareholder consent specifies a later effective date, action taken under this section is effective when: (a) Consents sufficient to authorize taking the action have been delivered to the corporation; and (b) the period of advance notice required by the corporation's articles of incorporation to be given to any nonconsenting shareholders has been satisfied.

(5) A consent executed under this section has the effect of a meeting vote and may be described as such in any record, except that, if the action requires the filing of a certificate under any other section of this title, the certificate so filed shall state, in lieu of any statement required by that section concerning any vote of shareholders, that consent has been obtained in accordance with this section and that notice to any nonconsenting shareholders has been given as provided in this section.

(6) Notice of the taking of action by shareholders without a meeting by less than unanimous consent of all shareholders entitled to vote on the action shall be given, before the date on which the action becomes effective, to those shareholders entitled to vote on the action who have not consented and, if this title would otherwise require that notice of a meeting of shareholders to consider the action be given to nonvoting shareholders, to all nonvoting shareholders of the corporation. The general or limited authorization in the corporation's articles of incorporation authorizing shareholder action by less than unanimous consent shall specify the amount and form of notice required to be given to nonconsenting shareholders before the effective date of the action. In the case of action of a type that would constitute a significant business transaction under RCW 23B.19.020(15), the notice shall be given no fewer than twenty days before the effective date of the action. The notice shall be in the form of a record and shall contain or be accompanied by the same material that, under this title, would have been required to be delivered to nonconsenting or nonvoting shareholders in a notice of meeting at which the proposed action would have been submitted for shareholder action. If the action taken is of a type that would entitle shareholders to exercise dissenters' rights under RCW 23B.13.020(1), then the notice must comply with RCW 23B.13.220(2), RCW 23B.13.210 shall not apply, and all shareholders who have not executed the consent taking the action are entitled to receive the notice, demand payment under RCW 23B.13.230, and assert other dissenters' rights as prescribed in chapter 23B.13 RCW.

[2002 c 297 § 23; 1997 c 19 § 2; 1991 c 72 § 33; 1989 c 165 § 63.]

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Last modified: April 7, 2009