Article 2. Institutions Of Arts And Sciences of California Education Code >> Division 1. >> Title 1. >> Part 12. >> Chapter 1. >> Article 2.

Any person intending in his lifetime or by will or trust deed, to operate after his death, to found, maintain, and perpetuate in this state a public library, museum, gallery of art, or any or all thereof, for the diffusion of mechanical, scientific, artistic, and general knowledge, may for that purpose, convey in writing by words denoting a gift or grant to one or more trustees named in the gift or grant, and to their successors, any library or collection of books and works, for the public library, or any museum, or gallery of art in this state.

The gift or grant may also express and shall be construed to be a conveyance of the future additions and accretions thereof.

The grantor may also in like manner, convey by grant to the trustee or trustees any real property within this state belonging to him, which may be necessary or proper for the erection and maintenance of buildings suitable to the institution, and the buildings erected thereon, with grounds, conveniently adjacent thereto, and other lands, tenements, and hereditaments for the purpose of producing an income for the support and maintenance of the institutions and any collateral burdens which may be imposed by the terms of the foundation as part and parcel of the regulations for its conduct, and also personal property of all descriptions, which may subserve the purposes of the institution and maintenance of the library, museum, or gallery of art.

Any contributions or gifts by any other person than the founder, of any property suitable to the general plan or support of any institution mentioned in this article, shall immediately vest in the trustees, and become incorporated into and subject to the trust, and to all its terms and conditions, and be managed under the rules and regulations prescribed therefor.

The person making the gift, grant, or conveyance, as founder may therein designate:
  (a) The name by which the institution shall be known.
  (b) Its nature, object, and purposes.
  (c) The powers and duties of the trustees, which shall not be exclusive of other powers and duties that, in their judgment, may be necessary more effectually to carry out the purposes of the institution.
  (d) The mode, manner, and by whom the successors to the trustees named in the gift or grant shall be appointed.
  (e) Such rules and regulations for the management of the institution, and the furtherance of its purposes, as the grantor may elect to prescribe. Such rules and regulations shall, unless the grant shall otherwise prescribe, be deemed advisory only, and shall not preclude the trustees or their successors from making such changes as new conditions may, from time to time, require.
  (f) The place or places where the necessary buildings shall be erected, and the general character thereof. The grantor may provide in the grant for all other things necessary or proper to carry out the purposes of the grant, or otherwise, by his last will or testament.

The trustees named in the gift or grant, and their successors, may, in the name of the institution, sue and defend in relation to the trust property, and to all matters affecting the institution.

By a provision in the gift or grant, the founder may elect, in respect to the personal and real property conveyed, and the additions and increase thereof, and in respect to the erection, maintenance, and management of any buildings auxiliary thereto, and in respect to any property connected with the institution, to reserve to himself a veto and right of annulment or modification of any act of the trustees.

If he elects to veto, annul, or modify any act of the trustees, he shall, within 30 days after notice of the performance of the act, file in the office of the trustees, or deliver to their president or principal officer, a notice in writing, of the veto, annulment, or modification.

Upon a like notice, in conformity with a provision in the gift or grant, he may elect to perform during his life all the powers which, by the terms of the grant, are vested in or enjoined upon the trustees, and their successors. Upon the death or disability to act of the founder and grantor, the powers and duties shall devolve upon, and be exercised by, the trustees, and their successors.

The founder may also reserve the right to alter, amend, or modify, at any time during his life, or by his last will and testament, the terms and conditions of the grant, and the trust created in respect to the institution, its buildings, and the property conveyed.

The founder may in the deed of trust name and describe the character and personality of any one or more of the immediate or future trustees, the librarian, and other officers, and name and impose any particular duty to be performed by any one or more trustees or other officers so described and characterized. He may declare and limit any compensation, and fix the character and method of the compensation he chooses to provide for the trustee or other officer whom the terms of his foundation may characterize, and upon whom specific or general duties are imposed.

The gift or grant shall be executed, acknowledged, and recorded in the manner provided by law for the execution, acknowledgment, and recording of grants of real property.

No suit, action, or proceeding shall be commenced or maintained by any person to set aside, annul, or affect any gift, grant, or conveyance, or to affect the title to the property conveyed, or the right to the possession or to the rents, issues, and profits thereof, unless the action is commenced within two years after the date of the filing of the grant for record.

Any founder, making a gift or grant for any of the purposes mentioned in this article, may, at any time thereafter, by last will or testament, devise or bequeath to the state all or any of the property, real and personal, mentioned in the gift or grant, or in any supplemental grant or gift, and the devise or bequest shall take effect if, from any cause whatever, the gift or grant is annulled or set aside, or the trusts therein declared for any reason fail. Such devise or bequest is suffered to be made by way of assurance that the intentions of the grantor shall be carried out, and in the faith that the state, if it succeeds to the property, or any part thereof, will, to the extent and value of the property carry out, in respect to the objects and purposes of the grant, all the wishes and intentions of the grantor.

The provisions of this article shall be liberally construed, with a view to effect its objects and purposes.