EXHIBIT
10.2
FORM OF INDEMNIFICATION
AGREEMENT
THIS
INDEMNIFICATION AGREEMENT (this “Agreement”) is entered
into as of mmm dd, yyyy by and between Kings Road Entertainment,
Inc., a Delaware corporation (the “Corporation”), and
XYZ (“Indemnitee”), based on the following:
Premises
A. The Restated
Certificate of Incorporation of the Corporation (the
“Articles”) provides for the limited indemnification of
the Corporation’s directors and the Bylaws (the
“Bylaws”) provides for indemnification of the
Corporation’s directors and officers to the fullest extent
permitted by any applicable and controlling Delaware law, statute,
rule, decision, or finding (collectively, “Delaware
Law”) and contemplate that contracts and other arrangements
may be entered into respecting indemnification of officers and
directors.
B. The parties
recognize the difficulty in obtaining liability insurance for the
Corporation’s directors, officers, employees, stockholders,
controlling persons, agents, and fiduciaries, the significant
increases in the cost of such insurance, and the general reductions
in the coverage of such insurance. Furthermore, the parties further
recognize the substantial increase in corporate litigation in
general, subjecting directors, officers, employees, controlling
persons, stockholders, agents, and fiduciaries to expensive
litigation risks at the same time as the availability and coverage
of liability insurance have been severely limited.
C. Indemnitee
does not regard the current protection available under the
Articles, Bylaws, and insurance as adequate under the present
circumstances, and Indemnitee and other directors, officers,
employees, stockholders, controlling persons, agents, and
fiduciaries of the Corporation may not be willing to serve in such
capacities without additional protection. Moreover, the Corporation
(i) desires to attract and retain the involvement of
highly-qualified persons, such as Indemnitee, to serve the
Corporation and, in part, in order to induce Indemnitee to be
involved with the Corporation, (ii) wishes to provide for the
indemnification and advancing of expenses to Indemnitee to the
maximum extent permitted by law, and (iii) wishes to assure
Indemnitee that there will be increased certainty of adequate
protection in the future.
D. In addition
to any insurance purchased by the Corporation on behalf of
Indemnitee, it is reasonable, prudent, and necessary for the
Corporation to obligate itself contractually to indemnify
Indemnitee so that he may remain free from undue concern that he
will not be adequately protected both during his service as an
executive officer and a director of the Corporation and following
any termination of such service.
E. This
Agreement is a supplement to and in furtherance of the Articles and
Bylaws and shall not be deemed a substitute therefor or to abrogate
any rights of Indemnitee thereunder.
F. The
directors of the Corporation have duly approved this Agreement and
the indemnification provided herein with the express recognition
that the indemnification arrangements provided herein exceed that
which the Corporation would be required to provide pursuant to
Delaware Law.
AGREEMENT
NOW, THEREFORE,
in consideration of the premises and the covenants contained
herein, the Corporation and Indemnitee do hereby covenant and agree
as follows:
1.
Definitions . As used in this Agreement:
(a)
The term “Indemnifiable Matter” means any event,
occurrence, status, or condition that takes place either prior to
or after the execution of this Agreement, including any threatened,
pending, or completed action, suit, proceeding, or alternative
dispute resolution activity, whether brought by or in the right of
the Corporation or otherwise and whether of a civil, criminal,
administrative, or investigative nature, in which Indemnitee was,
is, or believes he might be involved as a party, witness, or
otherwise (except any of the foregoing initiated by Indemnitee
pursuant to section 15 to enforce Indemnitee’s rights under
this Agreement): (i) by reason of the fact, in whole or in
part, that Indemnitee is or was actually or allegedly a director,
officer, agent, or advisor of the Corporation; (ii) by reason
of any action actually or allegedly taken by him or of any inaction
or omission on his part while acting as a director, officer, agent,
or advisor of the Corporation; (iii) by reason of the
registration, offer, sale, purchase, or ownership of any securities
of the Corporation; (iv) by reason of any duty owed to,
respecting, or in connection with the Corporation; or (v) by
reason of the fact, in whole or in part, that he is or was actually
or allegedly serving at the request of the Corporation as a
director, officer, employee, agent, or advisor of another
corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust, limited liability
company, or other entity or enterprise; in each case, whether or
not he is acting or serving in any such capacity at the time any
loss, liability, or expense is incurred for which indemnification
or reimbursement can be provided under this Agreement and even
though Indemnitee may have ceased to serve in such
capacity.
(b)
The term “Losses” means (i) any and all
losses, claims, damages, expenses, liabilities, judgments, fines,
penalties, and actions in respect thereof, as they are incurred,
against Indemnitee in connection with an Indemnifiable Matter;
(ii) amounts paid by Indemnitee in settlement of an
Indemnifiable Matter; (iii) any indirect, consequential, or
incidental damages suffered or incurred by Indemnitee; and
(iv) all attorneys’ fees and disbursements,
accountants’ fees and disbursements, private investigation
fees and disbursements, retainers, court costs, payments of
attachment, appeal, or other bonds or security, transcript costs,
fees of experts, fees and expenses of witnesses, travel expenses,
duplicating costs, printing and binding costs, telephone charges,
postage, delivery service fees, and all other disbursements or
expenses reasonably incurred by or for Indemnitee in connection
with prosecuting, defending, preparing to prosecute or defend,
investigating, appealing, or being or preparing to be a witness in
any threatened or pending Indemnifiable Matter or establishing
Indemnitee’s right or entitlement to indemnification for any
of the foregoing.
(c)
Reference to “other enterprise” shall include
employee benefit plans; references to “fines” shall
include any excise tax assessed with respect to any employee
benefit plan; references to “serving at the request of the
Corporation” shall include any service as a director,
officer, employee, agent, or advisor with respect to an employee
benefit plan, its participants, or beneficiaries; and a person who
acted in good faith and in a manner he reasonably believed to be in
the interests of the participants and beneficiaries of an employee
benefit plan shall be deemed to have acted in a manner “not
opposed to the best interests of the Corporation” as referred
to in this Agreement.
(d)
The term “Indemnitee” shall include the
Indemnitee named in the first paragraph of this Agreement and such
Indemnitee’s actual or alleged alter egos, spouse, family
members, and corporations, partnerships, limited liability
companies, trusts, and other enterprises or entities of any form
whatsoever under the control of any of the foregoing, and the
property of all of the foregoing. The term “control”
(including the terms “controlling,” “controlled
by,” and “under common control with”) means the
possession, direct or indirect, of the power to direct or cause the
direction of the management and policies of a person or entity,
whether through the ownership of voting securities, by contract, or
otherwise, as interpreted under the Securities Act of 1933 or the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange
Act”).
(e)
The term “substantiating documentation” shall
mean copies of bills or invoices for costs incurred by or for
Indemnitee, or copies of court or agency orders, decrees, or
settlement agreements, as the case may be, accompanied by a
declaration, which need not be notarized, from Indemnitee that such
bills, invoices, court or agency orders, decrees, or settlement
agreements represent costs or liabilities meeting the definition of
“Losses” herein.
(f)
Except as provided in section 14, the term “Independent
Counsel” shall mean an attorney, law firm, or member of a law
firm, who (or which) is licensed to practice law in the state of
Delaware or such other place in which the Corporation has an
Office, and is experienced in matters of corporation law and
neither presently is, nor in the past five years has been, retained
to represent (i) the Corporation or Indemnitee in any other
matter material to either such party; or (ii) any other party
to the Indemnifiable Matter giving rise to a claim for
indemnification hereunder. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the term
“Independent Counsel” shall not include any person who,
under the applicable standards of professional conduct then
prevailing, would have a conflict of interest in representing
either the Corporation or Indemnitee in an action to determine
Indemnitee’s rights under this Agreement. From time to time,
the Corporation may select and preapprove the names of persons or
law firms that it deems qualified as Independent Counsel under the
foregoing criteria. Further, at the request of Indemnitee, the
Corporation shall review the qualifications and suitability under
the foregoing criteria of persons or law firms selected by
Indemnitee and preapprove them as Independent Counsel if they meet
the foregoing criteria. An Independent Counsel that has already
been preapproved by the board of directors may be appointed as
Independent Counsel without any further evaluation, so long as such
prospective Independent Counsel continues, as determined by the
board of directors, to remain independent.
(g)
A “Change in Control” shall be deemed to have
occurred if (i) any “person” (as such term is used
in Section 13(d)(3) of the Exchange Act), other than a trustee or
other fiduciary holding securities under an employee benefit plan
of the Corporation or a corporation owned directly or indirectly by
the stockholders of the Corporation in substantially the same
proportions as their ownership of stock of the Corporation,
(1) that is or becomes the beneficial owner, directly or
indirectly, of securities of the Corporation representing 20% or
more of the combined voting power of the Corporation’s
then-outstanding voting securities, increases its beneficial
ownership of such securities by 5% or more over the percentage so
owned by such person, or (2) becomes the “beneficial
owner” (as defined in Rule 13d-3 under the Exchange Act),
directly or indirectly, of securities of the Corporation
representing more than 30% of the total voting power represented by
the Corporation’s then-outstanding voting securities,
(ii) during any period of two consecutive years, individuals
who at the beginning of such period constitute the board of
directors of the Corporation and any new director whose election by
the board of directors or combination for election by the
Corporation’s stockholders was approved by a vote of at least
two-thirds of the directors then still in office who either were
directors at the beginning of the period or whose election or
nomination for election was previously so approved, cease for any
reason to constitute a majority thereof, or (iii) the
stockholders of the Corporation approve a merger or consolidation
of the Corporation with any other corporation other than a merger
or consolidation that would result in the voting securities of the
Corporation outstanding immediately prior thereto continuing to
represent (either by remaining outstanding or by being converted
into voting securities of the surviving entity) at least two-thirds
of the total voting power represented by the voting securities of
the Corporation or such surviving entity outstanding immediately
after such merger or consolidation, or the stockholders of the
Corporation approve a plan of complete liquidation of the
Corporation or an agreement for the sale or disposition by the
Corporation of (in one transaction or a series of transactions) all
or substantially all of the Corporation’s assets.
2.
Indemnity of Indemnitee . The Corporation hereby agrees to
indemnify, protect, defend, and hold harmless Indemnitee against
any and all Losses incurred by reason of the fact that Indemnitee
is or was a director, officer, agent, or advisor of the
Corporation, or is or was serving at the request of the Corporation
as a director, officer, employee, agent, or advisor of another
corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust, limited liability
company, or other entity or enterprise, to the fullest extent
permitted by Delaware Law. The termination of any Indemnifiable
Matter by judgment, order of the court, settlement, conviction, or
upon a plea of nolo contendere or its equivalent, shall
not, of itself, create a presumption that Indemnitee is not
entitled to indemnification, and with respect to any criminal
proceeding, shall not create a presumption that such person
believed that his conduct was unlawful. The indemnification
provided herein shall be applicable whether or not the breach of
any standard of care or duty, including a breach of a fiduciary
duty, of the Indemnitee is alleged or proven, except as limited by
section 3 herein.
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