A merger or consolidation becomes effective when the stated certificate is issued or the articles’ effective date arrives, whichever is later, and the surviving or new cooperative takes over the merged cooperatives’ rights, property, and liabilities.
A merger or consolidation shall become effective upon the date that the certificate of merger or the certificate of consolidation is issued by the secretary of state, or the effective date specified in the articles of merger or articles of consolidation, whichever is later. When a merger or consolidation has become effective: 1. The several cooperatives which are parties to the plan of merger or consolidation shall be a single cooperative, which, in the case of a merger, shall be that cooperative designated in the plan of merger as the surviving cooperative, and, in the case of consolidation, shall be that cooperative designated in the plan of consolidation as the new cooperative. 2. The separate existence of all cooperatives which are parties to the plan of merger or consolidation, except the surviving or new cooperative, shall cease. 3. The surviving or new cooperative shall have all the rights, privileges, immunities, and powers and shall be subject to all the duties and liabilities of a cooperative organized under this chapter. 4. The surviving or new cooperative shall possess all the rights, privileges, immunities, and franchises, public as well as private, of each of the merging or consolidating cooperatives. 5. All property, real, personal, and mixed, and all debts due on whatever account, including all choses in action, and all and every other interest, of or belonging to or due to each of the cooperatives merged or consolidated, shall be transferred to and vested in the surviving or new cooperative without further act or deed. The title to any real estate, or any interest in real estate vested in any of the cooperatives merged or consolidated, shall not revert or be in any way impaired by reason of the merger or consolidation. 6. A surviving or new cooperative shall be responsible and liable for all obligations and liabilities of each of the cooperatives merged or consolidated. 7. Any claim existing or action or proceeding pending by or against any of the cooperatives merged or consolidated may be prosecuted as if the merger or consolidation had not taken place, or the surviving or new cooperative may be substituted for the merged or consolidated cooperative. Neither the rights of creditors nor any liens upon the property of any cooperative shall be impaired by a merger or consolidation. 8. In the case of a merger, the articles of association of the surviving cooperative shall be deemed to be amended to the extent that changes in its articles of association are stated in the plan of merger. In the case of a consolidation, the statements set forth in the articles of consolidation which are required or permitted to be set forth in the articles of association of a cooperative shall be deemed to be the original articles of association of the new cooperative. 9. The aggregate amount of the net assets of the merging or consolidating cooperative which was available for the payment of distributions immediately prior to the merger or consolidation, to the extent that the amount is not transferred to stated capital by the issuance of interests or otherwise, shall continue to be available for the payment of distributions by the surviving or new cooperative. 98 Acts, ch 1152, §42, 69; 2012 Acts, ch 1023, §98 Referred to in §501.419, 501.611