DIVISION 23.5. ENDOWMENT HOSPITALS [32500 - 32508]
( Division 23.5 added by Stats. 1953, Ch. 82. )
The provisions of this division shall be liberally construed to effect its objects and promote its purposes.
(Added by Stats. 1953, Ch. 82.)
Any person desiring in his or her lifetime to promote the public welfare by founding, endowing, and having maintained within this state a hospital for the relief of the sick, and for use as a training school for nurses may, by grant in writing, convey to a trustee named in the grant and to the successor of such trustee, any of his or her property situated within this state. If he or she is married or in a registered domestic partnership and the property is community, both spouses shall join in the grant.
(Amended by Stats. 2016, Ch. 50, Sec. 55. (SB 1005) Effective January 1, 2017.)
The grant may be executed, acknowledged, and recorded in the manner provided by law for the execution, acknowledgment, and recording of a grant of real property.
(Added by Stats. 1953, Ch. 82.)
The grantor may designate in the grant:
(a)
The nature, object, and purpose of the hospital.
(b)
The name by which it shall be known.
(c)
The powers and duties of the trustee, including the manner in which he shall account, and to whom. Such powers and duties shall not be held to be exclusive of any others necessary to enable the trustee fully to carry out the object of the grant.
(d)
The mode and manner by which, and the person by whom any successor of the named trustee shall be appointed.
(e)
Such rules and regulations for the management of the property conveyed as the grantor may elect to prescribe. Unless the grantor otherwise prescribes, such rules shall be advisory only, and shall not preclude the trustee from making such changes as new conditions may from time to time require.
(Added by Stats. 1953, Ch. 82.)
The trustee may in the name of the hospital grant, receive, and hold gifts of property, and sue and defend in relation to the trust property and all matters affecting the hospital.
(Added by Stats. 1953, Ch. 82.)
The trustee may exercise corporate powers and privileges, and to that end may organize and act as a board of trustees, elect such officers of the board as he may deem necessary, adopt by-laws, and as such board or through such officers transact such business, perform such acts, and exercise such powers as he in writing may provide may be transacted, performed, and exercised by such board.
(Added by Stats. 1953, Ch. 82.)
The board may adopt and use a seal. When attached to any document or writing the seal shall be prima facie evidence that the document or writing was made by and under due authority from the board and the trustee.
(Added by Stats. 1953, Ch. 82.)
The grantor, by a provision in the grant, may during his lifetime elect, in relation to the property conveyed and to the erection, maintenance, and management of the hospital, to perform all the duties and exercise all the powers which, by the terms of the grant, are enjoined upon and vested in the trustee. In such case the powers and duties conferred and imposed by the grant upon the trustee shall be exercised and performed by the grantor during his lifetime. Upon the death of the grantor the powers and duties shall devolve upon and be exercised by the trustee or his successor.
(Added by Stats. 1953, Ch. 82.)
No suit, action, or proceeding shall be commenced or maintained by any person to set aside, annul, or affect the conveyance or the title to the property conveyed, or the right to the possession, rents, issues, and profits thereof, unless it is commenced within two years after the date of filing the grant for record. Nor in any suit, action, or proceeding commenced by the trustee named in the grant, his successor, privy, or any person holding under him shall any defense be made involving the legality of the grant, or affecting the title to the property thereby conveyed, the right to its possession, or the rents, issues, and profits thereof, unless the suit, action, or proceeding is commenced within two years after the grant is filed for record. After such filing the property shall be exempt from execution and forced sale.
(Added by Stats. 1953, Ch. 82.)