(a) A director shall perform the duties of a director, including duties as a member of any committee of the board upon which the director may serve, in good faith, in a manner the director believes to be in the best interests of the social purpose corporation and its shareholders, and with that care, including reasonable inquiry, as an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would use under similar circumstances.
(b) In performing the duties of a director, a director shall be entitled to rely upon information, opinions, reports, or statements, including financial statements and other financial data, in each case prepared or presented by any of the following:
(1) An officer or employee of the social purpose corporation whom the director believes to be reliable and competent in the matters presented.
(2) Counsel, independent accountants, or other persons as to matters which the director believes to be within that person’s professional or expert competence.
(3) A committee of the board upon which the director does not serve, as to matters within its designated authority, which committee the director believes to merit confidence, so long as the director acts in good faith, after reasonable inquiry when the need therefor is indicated by the circumstances and without knowledge that would cause that reliance to be unwarranted.
(c) In discharging his or her duties, a director shall consider those factors, and give weight to those factors, as the director deems relevant, including the overall prospects of the social purpose corporation, the best interests of the social purpose corporation and its shareholders, and the purposes of the social purpose corporation as set forth in its articles.
(d) A person who performs the duties of a director in accordance with subdivisions (a), (b), and (c) shall have no liability based upon any alleged failure to discharge the person’s obligations as a director. The liability of a director for monetary damages may be eliminated or limited by a social purpose corporation’s articles to the extent provided in paragraph (10) of subdivision (a) of Section 2603.
(e) Notwithstanding any of the purposes set forth in its articles, a social purpose corporation shall not be deemed to hold any of its assets for the benefit of any party other than its shareholders. However, nothing in this division shall be construed as negating existing charitable trust principles or the Attorney General’s authority to enforce any charitable trust created.
(f) Nothing in this section, express or implied, is intended to create or grant or shall create or grant any right in or for any person or any cause of action by or for any person, and a director shall not be responsible to any party other than the social purpose corporation and its shareholders.
(Amended by Stats. 2014, Ch. 694, Sec. 42. (SB 1301) Effective January 1, 2015.)