California Corporations Code 1601 – (a) (1) The accounting books, records, and minutes of …
(a) (1) The accounting books, records, and minutes of proceedings of the shareholders and the board and committees of the board of any domestic corporation, and of any foreign corporation keeping any records in this state or having its principal office in California, or a true and accurate copy thereof if the original has been lost, destroyed, or is not normally physically located within this state shall be open to inspection at the corporation’s principal office in California, or if none, at the physical location for the corporation’s registered agent for service of process in this state, upon the written demand on the corporation of any shareholder or holder of a voting trust certificate at any reasonable time during usual business hours, for a purpose reasonably related to the holder’s interests as a shareholder or as the holder of a voting trust certificate.
(2) As an alternative to the procedure in subdivision (a), the shareholder or holder of a voting trust certificate may elect to request that the corporation produce the books, records, and minutes by mail or electronically, if the shareholder or holder of a voting trust certificate pays for the reasonable costs for copying or converting the requested documents to electronic format.
Terms Used In California Corporations Code 1601
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Person: includes a corporation as well as a natural person. See California Corporations Code 18
- Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
- State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Education Code 77
(3) The right of inspection created by this subdivision shall extend to the records of each subsidiary of a corporation subject to this subdivision.
(b) The inspection by a shareholder or holder of a voting trust certificate may be made in person or by agent or attorney, and the right of inspection includes the right to copy and make extracts. The right of the shareholders to inspect the corporate records may not be limited by the articles or bylaws.
(Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 617, Sec. 29. (SB 1202) Effective January 1, 2023.)