SECTIONS 21140-21154 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 21140-21154

21140. 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.

21141. The gift or grant may also express and shall be construed to
be a conveyance of the future additions and accretions thereof.

21142. 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.

21143. 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.

21144. 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.

21145. 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.

21146. 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.

21147. 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.

21148. 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.

21149. 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.

21150. 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.

21151. 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.

21152. 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.

21153. 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.

21154. The provisions of this article shall be liberally construed,
with a view to effect its objects and purposes.