ARTICLE 1. Foundations and Trusts [21100. - 21119.]

Cal. Education Code - EDC 1.
in effect

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21100. Section 21100.

Any person desiring in his or her lifetime to promote the public welfare by founding, endowing, and maintaining within this state a university, college, school, seminary of learning, mechanical institute, museum, botanic garden, public park, or gallery of art, or any or all thereof, may, for such purposes, by grant in writing convey to a trustee, or any number of trustees, named in the grant, and to their successors, any property, real or personal, belonging to him or her and situated within this state. If he or she is married or in a registered domestic partnership and the property is community property, then both spouses shall join in the grant.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21101. Section 21101.

The grantor may designate in the grant: (a) The nature, object, and purposes of the institution to be founded, endowed, and maintained. (b) The name by which it shall be known. (c) The powers and duties of the trustees, and the manner in which they shall account, and to whom, if accounting is required. Such powers and duties shall not be exclusive of other powers and duties which may be necessary to enable the trustees to fully carry out the objects of the grant. (d) The mode and manner, and by whom, the successors to the trustee or trustees named in the grant are to be appointed. (e) Such rules and regulations for the management of the property conveyed as the grantor may elect to prescribe. Such rules shall, unless the grantor otherwise prescribes, be deemed advisory only, and shall not preclude the trustees from making such changes as new conditions may from time to time require. (f) The place where and the time when the buildings necessary and proper for the institution shall be erected, and the character and extent thereof.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21102. Section 21102.

The grantor may also provide for all other things necessary and proper to carry out the purposes of the grant, and especially may provide for the trades and professions which shall be taught in the institution, and the terms upon which deserving scholars of the public and private schools of the various counties of this state may be admitted to all the privileges of the institution, as a reward for meritorious conduct and good scholarship.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21103. Section 21103.

The grantor may also provide for maintaining free scholarships for children of persons who have rendered service to or who have died in the service of the state and for maintaining free scholarships for children of mechanics, tradesmen, and laborers, who have died without leaving means sufficient to give their children a practical education, fitting them for the useful trades or arts.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21104. Section 21104.

The grantor may also provide the terms and conditions upon which students in the public and private schools, and other deserving persons, may, without cost to themselves, attend the lectures of any university established, and also the terms and conditions upon which the museums, art galleries, and conservatories of music, connected with any such institution, shall be open to all deserving persons without charge, and without their becoming students of the institution.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21105. Section 21105.

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

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21106. Section 21106.

The grantor, by a provision in the grant, may elect, in relation to the property conveyed, and in relation to the erection, maintenance, and management of the institution, to perform, during his life, all the duties and exercise all the powers which, by the terms of the grant, are enjoined upon and vested in the trustee or trustees.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21107. Section 21107.

A grantor who is a married person may further provide that his or her surviving spouse during his or her life, may, in relation to the property conveyed, and in relation to the election, maintenance, and management of the institution, perform all the duties and exercise all the powers which, by the terms of the grant, are enjoined upon and vested in the trustee and trustees.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21108. Section 21108.

In the cases referred to in Sections 21106 and 21107, the powers and duties conferred and imposed upon the trustee or trustees shall be exercised and performed by the grantor, or by his or her spouse, during his or her life, as the case may be. Upon the death of the grantor, or the surviving spouse, as the case may be, the powers and duties shall devolve upon and shall be exercised by the trustees named in the grant, and their successors.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21109. Section 21109.

The grantor may reserve the right to alter, amend, or modify the terms and conditions of the grant, and the trusts created, in respect to any of the matters mentioned or referred to in Sections 21101 to 21104, inclusive.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21110. Section 21110.

The grantor may also reserve, during his or her life, the right of absolute dominion over the personal property conveyed, and also over the rents, issues, and profits of the real property conveyed, without liability to account therefor in any manner whatever, and without any liability over against his or her estate.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21111. Section 21111.

A grantor who is a married person may further provide that his or her spouse, during his or her life, may have the same absolute dominion, over the personal property, and the rents, issues, and profits, without liability to account therefor in any manner whatever, and without liability over against the estate of either the grantor or his or her spouse.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21112. Section 21112.

The founder or founders, surviving founder, or spouse or surviving spouse of any founder, of a university, college, school, seminary of learning, mechanical institute, museum, gallery of art, library or any other institution, or any or all thereof, founded pursuant to this article, may, by an instrument in writing, resign, relinquish, and surrender all the rights, powers, privileges and duties reserved to or vesting in him or her, over, in, or concerning any of the property granted or given to the institution, or over or concerning the institution founded. Thereupon all estates, rights, powers, privileges, trusts, and duties which would otherwise vest in or devolve upon the trustee or trustees of the trusts and estates created upon the death of the person resigning, relinquishing, and surrendering, by the terms of the grant and amendments thereof, and by the terms of any grants, gifts, bequests, and devices supplementary thereto, or of any confirmatory grants, shall immediately vest in and devolve upon the trustee or trustees. Nothing herein contained shall prevent the person resigning, relinquishing and surrendering the rights, powers, privileges, or duties from thereafter becoming and serving as one of the trustees, or from becoming and serving as an officer of any board of trustees.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21113. Section 21113.

The grantor may provide in the grant that the trustees and their successors, may, in the name of the institution, become the custodian of the person of minors. When any such provision is made in a grant, the trustees and their successors may take the custody and control in the manner and for the time and in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 3070) of Division 3 of the Labor Code.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21114. Section 21114.

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

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21115. Section 21115.

No suit, action, or proceeding shall be commenced or maintained by any person to set aside, annul, or affect the 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 filing the grant for record. No defense shall be made to any suit, action, or proceeding commenced by the trustee or trustees named in the grant, or their successors, privies, or persons holding under them, which involves the legality of the grant, or affects the title to the property conveyed, or the right to the possession, or the rents, issues, and profits thereof, unless the defense is made in a suit, action, or proceeding commenced within two years after the grant has been filed for record.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21116. Section 21116.

The property conveyed by the grant shall not, after a lapse of two years from the date of the filing for record of the grant, be subject to forced sale, under execution, or judicial proceedings of any kind, against the grantor or his privies, unless the action under which the execution is issued, or the proceedings under which the sale is ordered, has been commenced within two years after the grant has been filed for record. No property shall be subject to execution or forced sale under any judgment obtained in any proceedings instituted within two years, if there is other property of the grantor, subject to execution or forced sale sufficient to satisfy the judgment. Nothing in this section contained shall be construed to affect mechanics’ or laborers’ liens.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21117. Section 21117.

Any person making the grant may, at any time thereafter, by last will or testament, devise and bequeath to the state all or any of the property, real and personal, mentioned in the grant, or in any supplemental grant, and the devise or bequest shall only take effect if, from any cause whatever, the grant is annulled or set aside, or the trusts therein declared for any reason fail. Such devise and bequest is permitted to be made by way of assurance that the wishes 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.

Cal. Education Code - EDC § 21118. Section 21118.

No wish, direction, act, or condition expressed, made, or given by any grantor, under this article, as to religious instruction to be given in any school, college, seminary, mechanical institute, museum, or gallery of art, or in respect to the exercise of religious belief, on the part of any pupil of the school or institution of learning, shall be binding upon the state. The state shall not enforce, or permit to be enforced or carried out, any such wish, direction, act, or condition.
Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026

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