The opinion of counsel as to the legality of the securities that may be issued under each Plan is given by Mark C. Darrell, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for the Registrant. Mr. Darrell owns shares of the Registrant’s common stock and is eligible to participate in the Plan.
Item 6. Indemnification of Directors and Officers.
The General and Business Corporation Law of Missouri provides that a corporation may indemnify any person who was or is a party or is threatened to be made a party to any threatened, pending or completed action, suit, or proceeding by reason of the fact that he or she is or was a director, officer, employee or agent of the corporation, or is or was serving at the request of the corporation as a director, officer, employee or agent of another corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust or other enterprise, against expenses, judgments, fines and amounts paid in settlement actually and reasonably incurred by him or her in connection with such action, suit, or proceeding if he or she acted in good faith and in a manner he or she reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the corporation, and, with respect to any criminal action or proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe his or her conduct was unlawful. However, a corporation may not indemnify such a person against judgments and fines, and no person shall be indemnified as to any claim, issue or matter as to which such person shall have been adjudged to be liable for negligence or misconduct in the performance of his or her duty to the corporation, unless and only to the extent that the court in which the action or suit was brought determines upon application that the person is fairly and reasonably entitled to indemnity for proper expenses.
Missouri law also provides that, to the extent that a director, officer, employee or agent of the corporation has been successful in defense of any such action, suit, or proceeding or of any claim, issue or matter therein, he or she shall be indemnified against expenses, including attorneys’ fees, actually and reasonably incurred in connection with the action, suit, or proceeding.
The statute also provides that a corporation may provide additional indemnification to any person indemnifiable as described above, provided such additional indemnification is authorized by the corporation’s articles of incorporation or a shareholder-approved bylaw or agreement, and provided further that no person shall be indemnified against conduct that was finally adjudged to have been knowingly fraudulent, deliberately dishonest or willful misconduct.
The Registrant’s Articles of Incorporation provide that it shall indemnify each of its directors and officers to the full extent permitted by The General and Business Corporation Law of Missouri and, in addition, shall indemnify each of them against all expenses incurred in connection with any claim by reason of the act that such director or officer is or was, serving the Registrant, or at its request, in any of the capacities referred to in The General and Business Corporation Law of Missouri, or arising out of such person’s status in any such capacity, provided that the Registrant shall not indemnify any person from or on account of such person’s conduct that was finally adjudged to have been knowingly fraudulent, deliberately dishonest or willful misconduct, or to the extent that such indemnification shall otherwise be finally adjudged to be prohibited by applicable law. The Registrant’s Articles of Incorporation also allow it to indemnify any other person as permitted by The General and Business Corporation Law of Missouri.
The Registrant has also entered into indemnification agreements with each of its directors and officers that (1) provide for the indemnification of each such director and officer to the extent provided for by the Registrant’s articles of incorporation as described above and (2) state that the indemnification provided thereunder shall survive the elimination or modification of the Registrant’s Articles of Incorporation with respect to claims that have arisen prior to such elimination or modification.
The
Registrant
’s
A
rticles
of Incorporation
further provide that no present or former director shall be personally liable to the
Registrant
or its shareholders for monetary dama
ges for breach of fiduciary duty as a director other than (i) for any breach of the director’s duty of loyalty to the
Registrant
or its shareholders, (ii) for acts or omissions not in subjective good faith or that involve intentional misconduct or a knowin
g violation of law, (iii) for the payment of an illegal dividend as provided in Section 351.345 of The General and Business Corporation Law of Missouri, or (iv) for any transaction from which the director derived an improper personal benefit. To the extent
that The General and Business Corporation Law of Missouri is amended to authorize corporate action further eliminating or limiting the personal liability of directors, then the liability of a director of the
Registrant
shall be eliminated or limited to th
e full extent permitted by The General and Business Corporation Law of Missouri as so amended.
The Registrant has obtained insurance protecting the officers and directors against certain liabilities.
The rights of indemnification provided for above are not exclusive of any other rights of indemnification to which the persons seeking indemnification may be entitled under the Registrant’s Articles of Incorporation or bylaws or any agreement, vote of shareholders or disinterested directors, or otherwise.
Item 9.
Undertakings.
(a)
The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes:
(1)
To file, during any period in which offers or sales are being made, a post-effective amendment to this
registration statement;
(i)
To include any prospectus required by Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act;
(ii)
To reflect in the prospectus any facts or events arising after the effective date of the
registration statement
(or the most recent post-effective amendment thereof) which, individually or in the aggregate, represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the
registration statement
. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any increase or decrease in volume of
securities offered (if the total dollar value of securities offered would not exceed that which was registered) and any deviation from the low or high end of the estimated maximum offering range may be reflected in the form of prospectus filed with the Com
mission pursuant to Rule 424(b) if, in the aggregate, the changes in volume and price represent no more than a 20% change in the maximum aggregate offering price set forth in the “Calculation of Registration Fee” table in the ef
fective
registration stateme
nt
;
(iii)
To include any material information with respect to the plan of distribution not previously disclosed in the
registration statement or any material change to such information in the registration statement;
provided, however, that paragraphs (a)(1)(i) and (a)(1)(ii) of this section do not apply if the registration statement is on Form S-8, and the information required to be included in the post-effective amendment by those paragraphs is contained in periodic reports filed with or furnished to the Commission by the Registrant pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act that are incorporated by reference in the registration statement.
(2)
That, for the purpose of determining any liability under the Securities Act, each such post-effec
tive amendment shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.
(3)
To remove from registration by means of a post-effective amendment any of the securities being registered which remain unsold at the termination of the offering.
(b)
The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes that, for purposes of determining any liability under the Securities Act,
each filing of the Registrant’s annual report pursuant to Section 13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act (and, where applicable, each filing of an employee benefit plan’s annual report pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act) that is incorporated by reference in the registration statement shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.
(c)
Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act may be permitted to directors, officers and controlling persons of the Registrant pursuant to the provisions described under Item 6 above, or otherwise, the Registrant has been advised that in the opinion of the Commission such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and is, therefore, unenforceable. In the event that a claim for indemnification against such liabilities (other than the payment by the Registrant of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person of the Registrant in the successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding) is asserted by such director, officer or controlling person in connection with the securities being registered, the Registrant will, unless in the opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question whether such indemnification by it is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and will be governed by the final adjudication of such issue.