Mont. Code Ann. » TITLE 45. CRIMES · CHAPTER 2. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF LIABILITY · Part 3. Liability for Acts Committed by or for Another
Montana Code Annotated

Mont. Code Ann. § 45-2-311 (2026)

Criminal Responsibility Of Corporations

✓ laws through the 2025 session (checked Sept. 2026)
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MT-LEGleg.mt.gov JustiaTitle on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar
  1. MCA Contents
  2. TITLE 45
  3. CHAPTER 2
  4. Part 3
  5. 45-2-311 Criminal responsibility of corporations

TITLE 45. CRIMES

CHAPTER 2. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF LIABILITY

Part 3. Liability for Acts Committed by or for Another

Criminal Responsibility Of Corporations

45-2-311. Criminal responsibility of corporations. (1) A corporation may be prosecuted for the commission of an offense only if:

(a) the offense is a misdemeanor, is defined by 45-5-204, 45-6-315, 45-6-317, 45-6-318, 45-6-326, 45-8-113, 45-8-114, 45-8-212, 45-8-214, 82-1-201, or 82-10-104, or is defined by another statute that clearly indicates a legislative purpose to impose liability on a corporation and an agent of the corporation performs the conduct that is an element of the offense while acting within the scope of the agent's office or employment and in behalf of the corporation, except that any limitation in the defining statute concerning the corporation's accountability for certain agents or under certain circumstances is applicable; or

(b) the commission of the offense is authorized, requested, commanded, or performed by the board of directors or by a high managerial agent who is acting within the scope of that agent's employment in behalf of the corporation.

(2) A corporation's proof that the high managerial agent having supervisory responsibility over the conduct that is the subject matter of the offense exercised due diligence to prevent the commission of the offense is a defense to a prosecution for any offense to which subsection (1)(a) refers, other than an offense for which absolute liability is imposed. This subsection is inapplicable if the legislative purpose of the statute defining the offense is inconsistent with the provisions of this subsection.

(3) For the purposes of this section:

(a) "agent" means any director, officer, servant, employee, or other person who is authorized to act in behalf of the corporation;

(b) "high managerial agent" means an officer of the corporation or any other agent who has a position of comparable authority for the formulation of corporate policy or the supervision of subordinate employees in a managerial capacity.

History: En. 94-2-112 by Sec. 1, Ch. 513, L. 1973; R.C.M. 1947, 94-2-112; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 582, L. 1983; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 365, L. 1985; amd. Sec. 193, Ch. 42, L. 1997; amd. Sec. 3, Ch. 400, L. 2009.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 1 case, 2019–2019 · leading case: v. Smith-Cote (In re Cote), 2019 MT 10, 433 P.3d 221.
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
v. Smith-Cote (In re Cote), 2019 MT 10, 433 P.3d 221. · cites it 2× “Section 45-6-301(6), (7)(c), MCA (criminal penalties for embezzlement); see also § 45-2-311, MCA (criminal responsibility of corporations).”
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.