(21) “Required information" means the information that a limited partnership is required to maintain under s. 179.0108.
(22) “Sign" means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record, any of the following:
(a) To execute or adopt a tangible symbol.
(b) To attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process.
(23) “State" means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
(24) “Transfer" includes all of the following:
(a) An assignment.
(b) A conveyance.
(c) A sale.
(d) A lease.
(e) An encumbrance, including a mortgage or security interest.
(f) A gift.
(g) A transfer by operation of law.
(25) “Transferable interest" means the right, as initially owned by a person in the person's capacity as a partner, to receive distributions from a limited partnership, whether or not the person remains a partner or continues to own any part of the right. The term applies to any fraction of the interest, by whomever owned.
(26) “Transferee" means a person to which all or part of a transferable interest has been transferred, whether or not the transferor is a partner. The term includes a person that owns a transferable interest under s. 179.0602 (1) (c) or 179.0605 (1) (d).
179.0103 Knowledge; notice.
(1) A person knows a fact if any of the following applies:
(a) The person has actual knowledge of the fact.
(b) The person is deemed to know the fact under law other than this chapter.
(c) The person is deemed to know the fact under sub. (4) (cr).
(2) A person has notice of a fact if any of the following applies:
(a) The person has reason to know the fact from all the facts known to the person at the time in question.
(b) The person is deemed to have notice of the fact under sub. (3) or (4).
(3) A certificate of limited partnership on file in the office of the department is notice that the partnership is a limited partnership and the persons designated in the certificate as general partners are general partners. Except as otherwise provided in sub. (4), the certificate is not notice of any other fact.
(4) (a) A person not a partner is deemed to have notice of another person's dissociation as a general partner 90 days after an amendment to the certificate of limited partnership that states that the other person has dissociated becomes effective or 90 days after a statement of dissociation pertaining to the other person becomes effective, whichever occurs first.
(b) A person not a partner is deemed to have notice of all of the following as follows:
1. A limited partnership's dissolution 90 days after an amendment to the certificate of limited partnership stating that the limited partnership is dissolved becomes effective.
2. A limited partnership's termination 90 days after a statement of termination under s. 179.0802 (2) (b) 6. becomes effective.
3. A limited partnership's participation in a merger, interest exchange, conversion, or domestication, 90 days after the articles of merger, interest exchange, conversion, or domestication under subch. XI become effective.
(cr) A person not a partner is deemed to know of a limitation on authority to transfer real property as provided in s. 179.04023 (7).
(5) Subject to s. 179.0210 (6), a person notifies another person of a fact by taking steps reasonably required to inform the other person in ordinary course, whether or not those steps cause the other person to know the fact.
(6) Except for a transferor partner's notice or knowledge of the transfer under s. 179.0702 (5) or a withdrawing partner's notice or knowledge of the withdrawal under s. 179.0601 (2) (a) or 179.0603 (1), a general partner's knowledge or notice of a fact relating to the limited partnership is effective immediately as knowledge of or notice to the partnership, except in the case of a fraud on the partnership committed by or with the consent of the general partner. A limited partner's knowledge or notice of a fact relating to the partnership is not effective as knowledge of or notice to the partnership.
(7m) This subsection applies to notice that is required under this chapter and that is made subject to this subsection by express reference to this subsection. Written notice is effective at the earliest of the following:
(a) When received.
(b) Five days after its deposit in the U.S. mail, if mailed postpaid and correctly addressed.
(c) On the date shown on the return receipt, if sent by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, and the receipt is signed by or on behalf of the addressee.
(d) For notices from the department, upon successful transmission by e-mail as provided in this chapter.
179.0104 Governing law. (1) The law of this state governs all of the following:
(a) The internal affairs of a limited partnership.
(b) The liability of a partner as partner for a debt, obligation, or other liability of a limited partnership.
(2m) The fact that one or more of the partners of a partnership are, or are not, subject to tax on the income of the partnership shall have no effect on the application of the law of this state under sub. (1).
(3m) The partnership agreement may require, consistent with applicable jurisdictional requirements, that any or all claims involving the application of the law of this state under sub. (1) shall be brought solely and exclusively in the courts of this state.
179.0105 Partnership agreement; scope, function, and limitations. (1) Except as otherwise provided in subs. (3) and (4), the partnership agreement governs all of the following:
(a) Relations among the partners as partners and between the partners and the limited partnership.
(b) The activities and affairs of the partnership and the conduct of those activities and affairs.
(c) The means and conditions for amending the partnership agreement.
(d) Mergers, interest exchanges, conversions, and domestications under subch. XI.
(2) To the extent the partnership agreement does not provide for a matter described in sub. (1), this chapter governs the matter.
(3) A partnership agreement may not do any of the following:
(a) Vary the law applicable under ss. 179.0104 and 179.0112.
(b) Vary a limited partnership's capacity under s. 179.0111 to sue and be sued in its own name.
(c) Vary any requirement, procedure, or other provision of this chapter pertaining to any of the following:
1. Registered agents, except to require some form of vote or consent of the partners notwithstanding s. 179.0118 (2).
2. The department, including provisions pertaining to records authorized or required to be delivered to the department for filing under this chapter.
(d) Vary the provisions of s. 179.0204.
(e) Vary the right of a general partner under s. 179.0406 (2) (b) with respect to an amendment to the certificate of limited partnership which deletes a statement that the limited partnership is a limited liability limited partnership.
(f) Alter or eliminate, or restrict remedies for the breach of, the duty of loyalty or the duty of care, except as otherwise provided in sub. (4).
(g) Eliminate the contractual obligation of good faith and fair dealing under ss. 179.0305 (1) and 179.0409 (4), but the partnership agreement may, if not manifestly unreasonable, prescribe the standards by which the performance of the obligation is to be measured or restrict remedies for breach of the obligation.
(h) Relieve or exonerate a partner from liability for conduct that constitutes any of the following:
1. A willful failure to deal fairly with the limited partnership or its partners in connection with a matter in which the partner has a material conflict of interest.
2. A violation of the criminal law, unless the partner had reasonable cause to believe that the partner's conduct was lawful or no reasonable cause to believe that the partner's conduct was unlawful.
3. A transaction from which the partner derived an improper personal profit.
4. Willful misconduct.
(i) Vary the information required under s. 179.0108 or unreasonably restrict the duties and rights under s. 179.0304 or 179.0407, but the partnership agreement may impose reasonable restrictions on the availability and use of information obtained under those sections and may define appropriate remedies, including liquidated damages and security, for a breach of any reasonable restriction on use.
(j) Vary the grounds for expulsion stated in s. 179.0603 (5) (b).
(k) Unless the partnership is a limited liability limited partnership, vary the power of a person to dissociate as a general partner under s. 179.0604 (1), except to require that the notice under s. 179.0603 (1) be in a record and to not unreasonably specify how the notice must be given.
(L) Vary the causes of dissolution specified in s. 179.0801 (1) (f).
(m) Vary the requirement to wind up the limited partnership's activities and affairs as specified in s. 179.0802 (1), (2) (a), and (4).
(n) Unreasonably restrict the right of a partner to maintain an action under subch. IX.
(o) Vary the provisions of s. 179.0905, but the partnership agreement may provide that the partnership may not have a special litigation committee.
(p) Vary the right of a partner to approve a merger, interest exchange, conversion, or domestication under s. 179.1123 (1), 179.1133 (1), 179.1143 (1), or 179.1153 (1), except by written provision in the partnership agreement that does not impair the rights of the partner under s. 179.1161.
(pm) Impair the rights of a partner under s. 179.1161, except to require that the notice of acceptance under s. 179.1161 (2) be in a record or be given within fewer than 60, but not fewer than 10, days of receipt of the offer.
(q) Vary the required contents of a plan of merger under s. 179.1122, plan of interest exchange under s. 179.1132, plan of conversion under s. 179.1142, or plan of domestication under s. 179.1152.
(r) Except as otherwise provided in ss. 179.0106 and 179.0107 (2), restrict the rights under this chapter of a person other than a partner.
(4) Subject to sub. (3) (h), without limiting other terms that may be included in a partnership agreement, the following rules apply:
(a) The partnership agreement may do any of the following:
1. Specify the method by which a specific act or transaction that would otherwise violate the duty of loyalty may be authorized or ratified by one or more disinterested and independent persons after full disclosure of all material facts.
2. Alter the prohibition in s. 179.0504 (1) (b) so that the prohibition requires only that the partnership's total assets not be less than the sum of its total liabilities.
(b) If not manifestly unreasonable, the partnership agreement may do any of the following:
1. Alter or eliminate the aspects of, or restrict remedies with respect to, the duty of loyalty stated in s. 179.0409 (2).
2. Identify specific types or categories of activities that do not violate the duty of loyalty or the contractual obligation of good faith and fair dealing.
3. Alter the duty of care.
4. Alter or eliminate any other fiduciary duty.
(5) The court shall decide as a matter of law whether a term of a partnership agreement is manifestly unreasonable under sub. (3) (g) or (4) (b). The court shall make its determination as of the time the challenged term became part of the partnership agreement and by considering only circumstances existing at that time. The court may invalidate the term only if, in light of the purposes and activities and affairs of the limited partnership, it is readily apparent that the objective of the term is unreasonable or that the term is an unreasonable means to achieve the term's objective.
179.0106 Partnership agreement; effect on limited partnership and person becoming partner; preformation agreement. (1) A limited partnership is bound by and may enforce the partnership agreement, whether or not the partnership has itself manifested assent to the agreement.
(2) A person that becomes a partner is deemed to assent to the partnership agreement.
(3) Two or more persons intending to become the initial partners of a limited partnership may make an agreement providing that upon the formation of the partnership the agreement will become the partnership agreement.
179.0107 Partnership agreement; effect on 3rd parties and relationship to records effective on behalf of limited partnership. (1) A partnership agreement may specify that its amendment requires the approval of a person that is not a party to the agreement or the satisfaction of a condition. An amendment is ineffective if its adoption does not include the required approval or satisfy the specified condition.
(2) The obligations of a limited partnership and its partners to a person in the person's capacity as a transferee or person dissociated as a partner are governed by the partnership agreement. Subject only to a court order issued under s. 179.0703 (2) (b) to effectuate a charging order, all of the following apply to an amendment to the partnership agreement made after a person becomes a transferee or is dissociated as a partner:
(a) Except as provided in par. (b), the amendment is effective with regard to any debt, obligation, or other liability of the partnership or its partners to the person in the person's capacity as a transferee or person dissociated as a partner.
