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Corp. Code, § 5120 · Article 2. Formation

Corp. Code, § 5120

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) One or more persons may form a corporation under this part by executing and filing articles of incorporation.

(b) If initial directors are named in the articles, each director named in the articles shall sign and acknowledge the articles; if initial directors are not named in the articles, the articles shall be signed by one or more persons who thereupon are the incorporators of the corporation.

(c) The corporate existence begins upon the filing of the articles and continues perpetually, unless otherwise expressly provided by law or in the articles.

(d) At the time of filing pursuant to this section, the Secretary of State shall make available the filed articles of incorporation to the Attorney General.

(e) If the corporation was created by the elected legislative body in order to exercise authority that may lawfully be delegated by the elected governing body to a private corporation or other entity, the Secretary of State shall forward a copy of the filed articles of incorporation to the Controller.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 617, Sec. 45. (SB 1202) Effective January 1, 2023.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CORP&sectionNum=5120.
Text hash
sha256 d4d9b655d37bca6eb806f49ccbb9a26de56c18b5b83bdf009d6593ce17b7eca9
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.