Exhibit 3.1
THIRD AMENDED AND RESTATED
CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION
OF
WCA WASTE CORPORATION
ARTICLE I
The name of the corporation is WCA Waste Corporation (the “Corporation”).
ARTICLE II
The address of the Corporation’s registered office in the State of Delaware is c/o The Corporation Trust Company, Corporation Trust Center, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, Delaware 19801, County of New Castle. The name of its registered agent at such address is The Corporation Trust Company.
ARTICLE III
The purpose of the Corporation is to engage in any lawful act or activity for which corporations may be organized under the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (the “DGCL”).
ARTICLE IV
The total number of shares of capital stock which the Corporation shall have authority to issue is 1,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.0001 per share (“Common Stock”). The Corporation shall have the authority to issue fractional shares of its Common Stock. Each share of Common Stock shall have the same relative rights as, and be identical in all respects to, all the other shares of Common Stock. Each holder of shares of Common Stock shall be entitled to attend all special and annual meetings of the stockholders of the Corporation and, share for share and without regard to class, to cast one vote for each outstanding share of Common Stock so held upon any matter or thing (including, without limitation, the election of one or more directors) properly considered and acted upon by the stockholders of the Corporation.
ARTICLE V
The number of directors sitting on the Corporation’s board of directors (the “Board”) shall be such as from time to time shall be fixed in the manner provided in the By-Laws of the Corporation (the “By-Laws”). The election of directors of the Corporation need not be by ballot unless the By-Laws so require. Any director or any officer elected or appointed by the stockholders or by the Board may be removed at any time in such manner as shall be provided in the By-Laws or in any written agreement among the Corporation and its stockholders.
1
ARTICLE VI
In furtherance and not in limitation of the powers conferred by law, the Board is expressly authorized and empowered to make, alter and repeal the By-Laws by a majority vote at any regular or special meeting of the Board or by written consent, subject to the power of the stockholders of the Corporation to alter or repeal any By-Laws made by the Board.
ARTICLE VII
From time to time any of the provisions of this Certificate of Incorporation may be altered, amended or repealed, and other provisions authorized by the laws of the State of Delaware may be added or inserted, in the manner and at the time prescribed by said applicable law, and all rights at any time conferred upon the stockholders of the Corporation by this Certificate of Incorporation are granted subject to the provisions of thisArticle VII.
ARTICLE VIII
All notices referred to herein shall be in writing, shall be delivered personally or by overnight courier and shall be deemed to have been given when so delivered or sent by overnight courier to the Corporation at its principal executive offices and to any stockholder of the Corporation at such stockholder’s address as it appears in the stock records of the Corporation (unless otherwise specified in a written notice to the Corporation by such stockholder).
ARTICLE IX
The Corporation expressly elects not to be governed by Section 203 of the DGCL.
ARTICLE X
Whenever a compromise or arrangement is proposed between this Corporation and its creditors, or any class of them and/or between this Corporation and its stockholders, or any class of them, any court of equitable jurisdiction within the State of Delaware, may, on the application in a summary way of this Corporation or of any creditor or stockholder thereof or on the application of any receiver or receivers appointed for this Corporation under the provisions of Section 291 of the DGCL or on the application of trustees in dissolution or of any receiver or receivers appointed for this Corporation under the provisions of Section 279 of the DGCL order a meeting of the creditors or class of creditors, and/or the stockholders or class of stockholders of this Corporation, as the case may be, to be summoned in such manner as the said court directs. If a majority in number representing three-fourths in value of the creditors or class of creditors, and/or of the stockholders or class of stockholders of this Corporation, as the case may be, agree to any compromise or arrangement and to any reorganization of this Corporation as consequence of such compromise or arrangement, the said compromise or arrangement and the said reorganization shall, if sanctioned by the court to which the said application has been made, be binding on all the creditors or class of creditors, and/or on all the stockholders or class of stockholders of this Corporation, as the case may be, and also on this Corporation.
2
ARTICLE XI
To the fullest extent permitted by the DGCL, as the same exists or as may hereafter be amended, a director of the Corporation shall not be personally liable to the Corporation or its stockholders for monetary damages or breach of fiduciary duty as a director. The Corporation shall indemnify to the fullest extent permitted by law any person made or threatened to be made a party to an action or proceeding, whether criminal, civil, administrative, or investigative (a “Proceeding”), by reason of the fact that he or she or his or her testator or intestate is or was a director of the Corporation or any subsidiary of the Corporation or any predecessor of the Corporation or any subsidiary of the Corporation, or serves or served at any other enterprise as director at the request of the Corporation or any predecessor to the Corporation, or acted at the direction of any such director against all expense, liability and loss actually and reasonably incurred or suffered by such person in connection therewith.
Any indemnification under this Article XI (unless ordered by a court) shall be made by the Corporation upon a determination that indemnification of the director is proper in the circumstances because he or she has met the applicable standard of conduct set forth in the DGCL, as the same exists or hereafter may be amended (but, in the case of any such amendment, only to the extent that such amendment permits the Corporation to provide broader indemnification rights than said law permitted the Corporation to provide prior to such amendment).
Expenses (including attorneys’ fees) incurred by a director of the Corporation in defending a Proceeding shall be paid by the Corporation in advance of the final disposition of such Proceeding upon receipt of an undertaking by or on behalf of the director to repay all amounts so advanced in the event that it shall ultimately be determined that such director is not entitled to be indemnified by the Corporation as authorized in this Article XI.
The indemnification and advancement of expenses provided by this Article XI shall not be deemed exclusive of any other rights to which a person seeking indemnification or advancement of expenses may be entitled under any law (common or statutory), by-law, agreement, vote of stockholders or disinterested directors or otherwise, both as to action in his or her official capacity and as to action in another capacity while holding office or while employed by or acting as agent for the Corporation. All rights to indemnification under this Article XI shall be deemed to be a contract between the Corporation and each director of the Corporation or any of its subsidiaries who serves or served in such capacity at any time while this Article XI is in effect.
The Corporation shall have power to purchase and maintain insurance on behalf of any person who is or was or has agreed to become a director of the Corporation or any of its subsidiaries, or is or was serving at the request of the Corporation as a director of another corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust or other enterprise against any liability asserted against him or her and incurred by him or her or on his or her behalf in any such capacity, or arising out of his or her status as such, whether or not the Corporation would have the power to indemnify him or her against such liability under the provisions of this Article XI.
3
If this Article XI or any portion hereof shall be invalidated on any ground by any court of competent jurisdiction, then the Corporation shall nevertheless indemnify or advance expenses to each person entitled to indemnification or advancement of expenses, as the case may be, as to all expense, liability and loss actually and reasonably incurred or suffered by such person and for which indemnification or advancement of expenses, as the case may be, is available to such person pursuant to this Article XI to the full extent permitted by any applicable portion of this Article XI that shall not have been invalidated and to the full extent permitted by applicable law.
Neither any amendment nor repeal of this Article XI, nor the adoption of any provision of this Certificate of Incorporation inconsistent with this Article XI, shall eliminate or reduce the effect of this Article XI in respect of any matter occurring, or any cause of action, suit or claim that, but for this Article XI would accrue or arise, prior to such amendment, repeal of adoption of an inconsistent provision.
ARTICLE XII
In anticipation that Macquarie Infrastructure Partners II U.S., L.P., Macquarie Infrastructure Partners II International, L.P. and/or their affiliates (collectively, “MIP II”) will be, indirectly or directly, a substantial stockholder of the Corporation, and in recognition of (i) the benefits to be derived by the Corporation through its continued contractual, corporate and business relations with MIP II (including service of officers, directors, partners, managers, employees or affiliates of MIP II (collectively, “MIP II Persons”) as directors of the Corporation) and (ii) the difficulties attendant to any director, who desires and endeavors fully to satisfy such director’s fiduciary duties, in determining the full scope of such duties in any particular situation, the provisions of this Article XII are set forth to regulate, define and guide the conduct of certain affairs of the Corporation as they may involve MIP II and any MIP II Persons, and the powers, rights, duties and liabilities of the Corporation and its officers, directors and stockholders in connection therewith.
Except as MIP II may otherwise agree in writing, MIP II shall have the right to (i) engage, directly or indirectly, in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as the Corporation and (ii) do business with any client, competitor or customer of the Corporation, with the result that the Corporation shall have no right in or to such activities or any proceeds or benefits therefrom, and neither MIP II nor any MIP II Person (except as provided in the third paragraph of this Article XII) shall be liable to the Corporation or its stockholders for breach of any fiduciary duty by reason of any such activities of MIP II or of such MIP II Person’s participation therein. In the event that MIP II or any MIP II Person acquires knowledge of a potential transaction or matter that may be a corporate opportunity for both MIP II and the Corporation, MIP II and such MIP II Person shall have no duty to communicate or present such corporate opportunity to the Corporation and the Corporation hereby renounces any interest or expectancy it may have in such corporate opportunity, with the result that MIP II or such MIP II Person shall not be liable to the Corporation or its stockholders for breach of any fiduciary duty, including for breach of any fiduciary duty as a stockholder of the Corporation by reason of the fact that MIP II pursues or acquires such corporate opportunity for itself, directs such corporate opportunity to another person or entity, or does not present such corporate opportunity to the Corporation.
4
In the event that a director or officer of the Corporation who is a MIP II Person acquires knowledge of a potential transaction or matter that may be a corporate opportunity for both the Corporation and MIP II, such corporate opportunity shall belong to MIP II, and the Corporation hereby renounces any interest or expectancy it may have in such corporate opportunity, unless such corporate opportunity is expressly offered to such director or officer in writing solely in his capacity as a director or officer of the Corporation, in which case such corporate opportunity shall belong to the Corporation.
For the purposes of this Article XII, “corporate opportunities” shall not include any business opportunities that the Corporation is not financially or contractually able to undertake, or that are, from their nature, not in the line of the Corporation’s business or are of no practical advantage to it or that are ones in which the Corporation has no interest or reasonable expectancy.
Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any shares of capital stock of the Corporation shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to the provisions of this Article XII.
For purposes of this Article XII only, the “Corporation” shall mean the Corporation and all corporations, partnerships, joint ventures, associations and other entities in which the Corporation beneficially owns (directly or indirectly) fifty percent (50%) or more of the outstanding voting stock, voting power or similar voting interests.
5