PART V. RIGHTS OF DISSENTING STOCKHOLDERS

§376. Rights of a stockholder dissenting from certain actions

A. Except as provided in Subsection B of this Section, if a state bank has, by vote of its stockholders, authorized a sale, lease, or exchange of all or substantially all of its assets, or become a party to a merger, consolidation, or share exchange, or authorized a conversion into a national bank, or authorized a voluntary liquidation, then, unless such authorization or action shall have been given or approved by at least eighty percent of the total voting power, a stockholder who voted against such action shall have the right to dissent.

B. The right to dissent provided by this Section shall not exist in the case of stockholders holding shares of any class of stock which, at the record date fixed to determine stockholders entitled to receive notice of and to vote at the meeting of stockholders at which a merger, consolidation, or share exchange was acted on, were listed on a national securities exchange, unless the articles of the bank issuing such stock provide otherwise, or the shares of such stockholders were not converted by the merger, consolidation, or share exchange solely into shares of the surviving or new bank.

C.(1) Except as provided in the last sentence of this Subsection, any stockholder electing to exercise such right of dissent shall file with the bank, prior to or at the meeting of stockholders at which such proposed action is submitted to a vote, a written objection to such proposed action and shall vote his shares against such action.

(2) If such proposed action be taken by the required vote but by less than eighty percent of the total voting power, and the merger, consolidation, share exchange, sale, liquidation, or conversion authorized thereby be effected, the bank shall promptly thereafter give written notice thereof, by registered mail, to each stockholder who filed such written objection to and voted his shares against such action at such stockholder's last address on the bank's records.

(3) Each such stockholder may, within twenty days after the mailing of such notice to him but not thereafter, file with the bank a demand in writing for the fair cash value of his shares as of the day before such vote was taken, provided that he state in such demand the value demanded and a post office address to which the reply of the bank may be sent and at the same time deposit in escrow in a bank or trust company located in the parish of the domicile of the bank the certificates representing his shares, duly endorsed and transferred to the escrow bank upon the sole condition that said certificates shall be delivered to the bank upon payment of the value of the shares determined in accordance with the provisions of this Section. With his demand, the stockholder shall deliver to the bank the written acknowledgment of such escrow bank or trust company with which such certificates have been deposited that it so holds his certificates of stock.

(4) Unless the objection, demand, and acknowledgment aforesaid be made and delivered by the stockholder within the period described in this Subsection, he shall conclusively be presumed to have acquiesced in the action proposed or taken.

D. If the bank does not agree to the value so stated and demanded or does not agree that a payment is due, it shall, within twenty days after the receipt of such demand and acknowledgment, notify in writing the stockholder at the designated post office address of its disagreement and shall state in such notice the value it will agree to pay if any payment should be held to be due; otherwise, it shall be liable for and shall pay to the dissatisfied stockholder the value demanded by him for his shares.

E.(1) In case of disagreement as to such fair cash value or as to whether any payment is due after compliance by the parties with the provisions of Subsections C and D of this Section, the dissatisfied stockholder within sixty days after receipt of notice in writing of the bank's disagreement but not thereafter may file suit against the bank or the merged or consolidated bank, as the case may be, in the district court of the parish in which the bank or the merged or consolidated bank, as the case may be, is domiciled praying the court to fix and decree the fair cash value of the dissatisfied stockholder's shares as of the day before the action complained of was taken, and the court shall, on such evidence as may be adduced in relation thereto, determine summarily whether any payment is due and, if so, such cash value, and render judgment accordingly.

(2) Any stockholder entitled to file such a suit may, within such sixty-day period but not thereafter, intervene as a plaintiff in such a suit filed by another stockholder and recover therein judgment against the bank for the fair cash value of his shares. No order or decree shall be made by the court staying the proposed action, and any such action may be carried to completion notwithstanding any such suit.

(3) Failure of the stockholder to bring suit or to intervene in such a suit within sixty days after receipt of notice of disagreement by the bank shall conclusively bind the stockholder:

(a) By the bank's statement that no payment is due; or

(b) If the bank does not contend that no payment is due, to accept the value of his shares as fixed by the bank in its notice of disagreement.

F. When the fair value of the shares has been agreed upon between the stockholder and the bank, or when the bank has become liable for the value demanded by the stockholder because of failure to give notice of disagreement and of the value it will pay, or when the stockholder has become bound to accept the value the bank agrees is due because of his failure to bring suit within sixty days after receipt of notice of the bank's disagreement, the action of the stockholder to recover such value must be brought within five years from the date the value was agreed upon or the liability of the bank became fixed.

G. If the bank or the merged or consolidated bank, as the case may be, shall, in its notice of disagreement, have offered to pay the dissatisfied stockholder on demand an amount in cash deemed by it to be fair cash value of his shares, and if, on the institution of a suit by the dissatisfied stockholder claiming an amount in excess of the amount offered, the bank or the merged or consolidated bank, as the case may be, shall deposit in the registry of the court, there to remain until the final determination of the cause, the amount so offered; then, if the amount finally awarded such stockholder, exclusive of interest and costs, be more than the amount offered and deposited as aforesaid, the costs of the proceeding shall be taxed against the bank or the merged or consolidated bank, as the case may be, and judicial interest may be awarded against such bank only on the amount of the award in excess of the amount deposited in the registry of the court; otherwise, the costs of the proceeding shall be taxed against such stockholder.

H. Upon filing a demand for the value of his shares, the stockholder shall cease to have any of the rights of a stockholder except the rights accorded by this Section. Such a demand may be withdrawn by the stockholder at any time before the bank gives notice of disagreement as provided in Subsection D of this Section. After such notice of disagreement is given, withdrawal of a notice of election shall require the written consent of the bank. If a notice of election is withdrawn, or the proposed corporate action is abandoned or rescinded, or a court should determine that the stockholder is not entitled to receive payment for his shares, or the stockholder should otherwise lose his dissenter's rights:

(1) He shall not have the right to receive a payment for his shares;

(2) His share certificates shall be returned to him and, on his request, new certificates shall be issued to him in exchange for the old ones endorsed to the bank; and

(3) He shall be reinstated to all his rights as a stockholder as of the filing of his demand for value, including any intervening preemptive rights and the right to payment of any intervening dividend or other distribution, or, if any rights have expired or any such dividend or distribution other than in cash has been completed, in lieu thereof, at the election of the bank he shall receive the fair value thereof in cash as determined by the board as of the time of such expiration or completion, but without prejudice otherwise to any proceeding that may have been taken in the interim.

Acts 1984, No. 719, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 1985; Acts 1988, No. 93, §1; Acts 2001, No. 876, §1, eff. June 26, 2001.