14A:2-7. Certificate of incorporation

14A:2-7. Certificate of incorporation.

(1) The certificate of incorporation shall set forth:

(a) The name of the corporation;

(b) The purpose or purposes for which the corporation is organized. It shall be a sufficient compliance with this paragraph to state, alone or with specifically enumerated purposes, that the corporation may engage in any activity within the purposes for which corporations may be organized under this act, and all such activities shall by such statement be deemed within the purposes of the corporation, subject to express limitations, if any;

(c) The aggregate number of shares which the corporation shall have authority to issue;

(d) If the shares are, or are to be, divided into classes, or into classes and series, the designation of each class and series, the number of shares in each class and series, and a statement of the relative rights, preferences and limitations of the shares of each class and series, to the extent that such designations, numbers, relative rights, preferences and limitations have been determined;

(e) If the shares are, or are to be, divided into classes, or into classes and series, a statement of any authority vested in the board to divide the shares into classes or series or both, and to determine or change for any class or series its designation, number of shares, relative rights, preferences and limitations;

(f) Any provision not inconsistent with this act or any other statute of this State, which the incorporators elect to set forth for the management of the business and the conduct of the affairs of the corporation, or creating, defining, limiting or regulating the powers of the corporation, its directors and shareholders or any class of shareholders, including any provision which under this act is required or permitted to be set forth in the bylaws;

(g) The address of the corporation's initial registered office, and the name of the corporation's initial registered agent at such address. On or after the effective date of this 1989 amendatory and supplementary act, the address of the registered office as shown on the certificate of incorporation shall be a complete address, including the number and street location of the registered office and, if applicable, the post office box number;

(h) The number of directors constituting the first board and the names and addresses of the persons who are to serve as such directors;

(i) The names and addresses of the incorporators;

(j) The duration of the corporation if other than perpetual; and

(k) If, pursuant to subsection 14A:2-7(2), the certificate of incorporation is to be effective on a date subsequent to the date of filing, the effective date of the certificate.

(2) The certificate of incorporation shall be filed in the office of the Secretary of State. The corporate existence shall begin upon the effective date of the certificate, which shall be the date of the filing or such later time, not to exceed 90 days from the date of filing, as may be set forth in the certificate. Such filing shall be conclusive evidence that all conditions precedent required to be performed by the incorporators have been complied with and, after the corporate existence has begun, that the corporation has been incorporated under this act, except as against this State in a proceeding to cancel or revoke the certificate of incorporation or for involuntary dissolution of the corporation.

(3) The certificate of incorporation may provide that a director or officer shall not be personally liable, or shall be liable only to the extent therein provided, to the corporation or its shareholders for damages for breach of any duty owed to the corporation or its shareholders, except that such provision shall not relieve a director or officer from liability for any breach of duty based upon an act or omission (a) in breach of such person's duty of loyalty to the corporation or its shareholders, (b) not in good faith or involving a knowing violation of law or (c) resulting in receipt by such person of an improper personal benefit. As used in this subsection, an act or omission in breach of a person's duty of loyalty means an act or omission which that person knows or believes to be contrary to the best interests of the corporation or its shareholders in connection with a matter in which he has a material conflict of interest.

L.1968, c.350; amended 1987,c.35,s.1; 1988,c.94,s.10; 1989,c.17,s.1; 1989,c.175, s.1.