A. Any two or more cooperatives, by agreement of the proprietary lessees as provided in subsection B, may be merged or consolidated into a single cooperative. In the event of a merger or consolidation, unless the agreement otherwise provides, the resultant cooperative is, for all purposes, the legal successor of all of the preexisting cooperatives. The operations and activities of all associations of the preexisting cooperatives shall be merged or consolidated into a single association, which shall hold all powers, rights, obligations, assets, and liabilities of all preexisting associations.

B. An agreement of two or more cooperatives to merge or consolidate pursuant to subsection A must be evidenced by an agreement prepared, executed, recorded, and certified by the president of the association of each of the preexisting cooperatives following approval by proprietary lessees of cooperative interests to which are allocated the percentage of votes in each cooperative required to terminate that cooperative. Any such agreement must be recorded in every county or city in which a portion of the cooperative is located and is not effective until recorded.

C. Every merger or consolidation agreement must provide for the reallocation of the allocated interests in the new association among the cooperative interests of the resultant cooperative either (i) by stating the reallocations or the formulas upon which they are based or (ii) by stating the percentage of overall allocated interest of the new cooperative that are allocated to all of the cooperative interests comprising each of the preexisting cooperatives and providing that the portion of the percentages allocated to each cooperative interest formerly comprising a part of the preexisting cooperative must be equal to the percentages of allocated interests allocated to that cooperative interest by the declaration of the preexisting cooperative.

1982, c. 277, § 55-457; 2019, c. 712.