Common Stock certificate or for other securities of the Company, instrument of assignment or transfer, power of attorney, endorsement, affidavit, letter, notice, direction, consent, certificate, statement, or other paper or document believed by it to be genuine and to be duly signed, executed and, where necessary, guaranteed, verified or acknowledged, by the proper Person or Persons, or otherwise upon the advice of counsel as set forth in Section 20. Unless the Rights Agent receives notice thereof, the Rights Agent shall not be deemed to have knowledge of any event of which it was supposed to receive notice thereof hereunder, and the Rights Agent shall be fully protected and shall incur no liability for failing to take action in connection with any event unless and until it has received notice of such event in writing.
(c) Notwithstanding anything in this Agreement to the contrary, in no case shall the Company be liable with respect to any action, proceeding, suit or claim against the Rights Agent unless, to the extent the Company is not also a party to such action, proceeding, suit or claim, the Rights Agent has notified the Company in accordance with Section 26 of the assertion of such action, proceeding, suit or claim against the Rights Agent, promptly after the Rights Agent has actual notice of such assertion of an action, proceeding, suit or claim or has been served with the summons or other first legal process giving information as to the nature and basis of the action, proceeding, suit or claim; provided that the failure to provide such notice promptly shall not affect the rights of the Rights Agent hereunder, except to the extent such failure actually prejudiced the Company. The Company shall be entitled to participate, at its own expense, in the defense of any such action, proceeding, suit or claim, and, if the Company so elects, the Company shall assume the defense of any such action, proceeding, suit or claim. In the event the Company assumes such defense, the Company shall not thereafter be liable for the fees and expenses of any counsel retained by the Rights Agent, so long as the Company retains counsel satisfactory to the Rights Agent, in the exercise of its reasonable judgment, to defend such action, proceeding, suit or claim, and provided that the Rights Agent does not have defenses that are adverse to any defenses of the Company. The Rights Agent agrees not to settle any litigation in connection with any action, proceeding, suit or claim with respect to which it may seek indemnification from the Company without the prior written consent of the Company, which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld, conditioned or delayed.
(d) Section 18 and Section 20 shall survive the termination of this Agreement, the resignation, replacement or removal of the Rights Agent and the exercise, termination and expiration of the Rights.
Section 19. Merger or Consolidation or Change of Name of Rights Agent.
(a) Any Person into which the Rights Agent or any successor Rights Agent may be merged or with which it may be consolidated, or any Person resulting from any merger or consolidation to which the Rights Agent or any successor Rights Agent shall be a party, or any Person succeeding to the stock transfer business of the Rights Agent or any successor Rights Agent, shall be the successor to the Rights Agent under this Agreement without the execution or filing of any paper or any further act on the part of any of the parties hereto; provided, however, that such Person would be eligible for appointment as a successor Rights Agent under Section 20(k). In case at the time such successor Rights Agent succeeds to the agency created by this Agreement, any of the Rights Certificates has been countersigned but not delivered, any such successor Rights Agent may adopt the countersignature of a predecessor Rights Agent and deliver
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