Michigan Compiled Laws

Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.1561 (2026)

Indemnification of certain persons generally.

✓ current as of July 2026
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BUSINESS CORPORATION ACT


Act 284 of 1972


450.1561 Indemnification of certain persons generally.

Sec. 561.

    A corporation has the power to indemnify a person who was or is a party or is threatened to be made a party to a threatened, pending, or completed action, suit, or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative, or investigative and whether formal or informal, other than an action by or in the right of the corporation, 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, partner, trustee, employee, or agent of another foreign or domestic corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust, or other enterprise, whether for profit or not, against expenses, including attorneys' fees, judgments, penalties, fines, and amounts paid in settlement actually and reasonably incurred by him or her in connection with the action, suit, or proceeding, if the person 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 or its shareholders, and with respect to a criminal action or proceeding, if the person had no reasonable cause to believe his or her conduct was unlawful. The termination of an action, suit, or proceeding by judgment, order, settlement, conviction, or upon a plea of nolo contendere or its equivalent, does not, of itself, create a presumption that the person did not act in good faith and in a manner which he or she reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the corporation or its shareholders, and, with respect to a criminal action or proceeding, had reasonable cause to believe that his or her conduct was unlawful.

History: 1972, Act 284, Eff. Jan. 1, 1973 ;-- Am. 1987, Act 1, Eff. Mar. 1, 1987

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 2010–2025 · leading case: Home-Owners Ins. v. Allied Prop. & Cas. Ins., 152 F. Supp. 3d 956 (W.D. Mich. 2016).
Home-Owners Ins. v. Allied Prop. & Cas. Ins., 152 F. Supp. 3d 956 (W.D. Mich. 2016). · cites it 3× “2010) (applying Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.1561 within the context of a bankruptcy stay and explaining that the' employees were not “automatically entitled to indemnity”).”
Home-Owners Ins. Co. v. Allied Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 673 F. App'x 500 (6th Cir. 2016). · cites it 2× “See Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.1561 . The MBCA provides for indemnification if the indemni-tee “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.”
Forcine Concrete & Constr. Co. v. Manning Equip. Sales & Serv., 426 B.R. 520 (E.D. Pa. 2010). “” Mich. Comp. Laws § 450.1561 . In actions brought by third parties, however, Michigan law only requires indemnity “if a director or officer of a corporation has been successful on the merits or otherwise in defense of an action, suit, or proceeding.”
Lynne S Simon v. Sanford a Simon (Mich. Ct. App. 2025). · cites it 2× “1564a to argue that a board vote was required overlooks the binding effect of a corporation’s bylaws, which can override statutory default requirements, such as voting requirements.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.