Article 1. General Provisions of California Financial Code >> Division 1.1. >> Chapter 17. >> Article 1.
Notice to a bank operating a safety deposit department or to
a company conducting a safety deposit business of an adverse claim
(the person making the adverse claim being hereafter in this section
called "adverse claimant") to any personal property in a safe-deposit
box maintained by a bank or company and rented to any person, or to
any personal property held by the bank or company in safekeeping or
storage for any person shall be disregarded, and the bank or company,
notwithstanding such notice, shall permit access to the box to the
person to whom it is rented or shall deliver the contents thereof to
or on the order of the person or shall deliver the property held in
storage or safekeeping to or on the order of the person for whom it
is held, without any liability on the part of the bank or company;
subject, however, to the exceptions provided in subdivisions (a) and
(b) of this section:
(a) If an adverse claimant delivers to the bank at the office at
which the safe-deposit box is maintained or the property is held his
or her affidavit stating that of his or her own knowledge the person
in whose name the box stands or for whom the property is held is a
fiduciary for the adverse claimant and that he or she has reason to
believe that fiduciary is about to misappropriate the contents of the
box or the property, and stating the facts upon which the claim of
fiduciary relationship and the belief are founded, the bank or
company shall refuse access to the safe-deposit box or refuse to
deliver the personal property for a period of not more than three
court days (including the day of delivery) from the date that the
bank or company received the adverse claimant's affidavit, without
liability on its part and without liability for the sufficiency or
truth of the facts alleged in the affidavit.
(b) If at any time, either before, after, or in the absence of the
filing of an affidavit by the adverse claimant, the adverse claimant
procures and serves upon the bank or company at the office at which
the safe-deposit box is maintained or the property is held a
restraining order, injunction, or other appropriate order against the
bank or company from a court of competent jurisdiction in an action
in which the adverse claimant and all persons in whose names the box
stands or for whom the property is held are parties, the bank or
company shall comply with that order or injunction, without liability
on its part.
(c) The provisions of this section shall be applicable even though
the name of the person appearing on the bank's or company's books as
the renter of the box or as the depositor of the property held in
storage or safekeeping is modified by a qualifying or descriptive
term such as "agent," "trustee," or other word or phrase indicating
that the person may not be the owner in his or her own right of the
contents of the box or of the property held in storage or
safekeeping.
(d) Before giving access to any safe-deposit box, the bank or
company may demand payment to it of all costs and expenses of opening
the safe-deposit box and all costs and expenses of repairing any
damage to the safe-deposit box caused by the opening thereof.
(e) Notwithstanding subdivisions (a) and (b), if a central
location has been designated by the bank pursuant Section 684.115 of
the Code of Civil Procedure for service of legal process, as that
term is defined in Section 684.110 of the Code of Civil Procedure,
the adverse claimant shall serve a notice of adverse claim or related
affidavit, order, injunction, or other order contemplated herein at
the central location. If a central location has not but should have
been designated by the bank pursuant Section 684.115 of the Code of
Civil Procedure for service of legal process, as that term is defined
in Section 684.110 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the adverse
claimant may serve a notice of adverse claim or related affidavit,
order, injunction, or other order contemplated herein at any branch
or office of the institution located in this state.