California Codes

Cal. Corporations Code § 1600 (2026)

✓ current as of May 2026

Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section CA-LEGleginfo.legislature.ca.gov JustiaCode on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

(a)A shareholder or shareholders holding at least 5 percent in the aggregate of the outstanding voting shares of a corporation or who hold at least 1 percent of those voting shares and have filed a Schedule 14A with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission shall have an absolute right to do either or both of the following: (1) inspect and copy the record of shareholders’ names and addresses and shareholdings during usual business hours upon five business days’ prior written demand upon the corporation, or (2) obtain from the transfer agent for the corporation, upon written demand and upon the tender of its usual charges for such a list (the amount of which charges shall be stated to the shareholder by the transfer agent upon request), a list of the shareholders’ names and addresses, who are entitled to vote for the election of directors, and their shareholdings, as of the most recent record date for which it has been compiled or as of a date specified by the shareholder subsequent to the date of demand. The list shall be made available on or before the later of five business days after the demand is received or the date specified therein as the date as of which the list is to be compiled. A corporation shall have the responsibility to cause its transfer agent to comply with this subdivision.

(b)Any delay by the corporation or the transfer agent in complying with a demand under subdivision (a) beyond the time limits specified therein shall give the shareholder or shareholders properly making the demand a right to obtain from the superior court, upon the filing of a verified complaint in the proper county and after a hearing, notice of which shall be given to such persons and in such manner as the court may direct, an order postponing any shareholders’ meeting previously noticed for a period equal to the period of such delay. Such right shall be in addition to any other legal or equitable remedies to which the shareholder may be entitled.

(c)The record of shareholders shall also be open to inspection and copying by any shareholder or holder of a voting trust certificate at any time during usual business hours upon written demand on the corporation, for a purpose reasonably related to such holder’s interests as a shareholder or holder of a voting trust certificate.

(d)Any inspection and copying under this section may be made in person or by agent or attorney. The rights provided in this section may not be limited by the articles or bylaws. This section applies to any domestic corporation and to any foreign corporation having its principal office in California or customarily holding meetings of its board in this state.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 9 cases (4 in the last 5 years), 1983–2023 · leading case: Valtz v. Penta Inv. Corp., 139 Cal. App. 3d 803 (Cal. Ct. App. 1983).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

Valtz v. Penta Inv. Corp., 139 Cal. App. 3d 803 (Cal. Ct. App. 1983). “Although Penta claims Delaware law should control while the Valtzs rely on section 1600, we are not faced with a conflict of laws issue because section 1600 is expressly applicable here (Corp. Code, § 1600, subd. (d); 1A Ballantine & Sterling, Cal.”

Geller v. Consultants for Pathology CA2/3 (Cal. Ct. App. 2013). · cites it 7× “1 Corporations Code section 1600, subdivision (a) provides, in pertinent part, “A shareholder .”

JUUL Labs, Inc. v. Grove (Del. Ch. 2020). · cites it 2× “Cal. Corp. Code § 1600 (a) (emphasis added).”

Watkins v. Env't Serv. Professionals CA4/2 (Cal. Ct. App. 2014). · cites it 2× “Among other documents, the inspection demands sought documents “related to any efforts” by EVSP to ensure it would have adequate funds to pay Watkins $397,000 by March 10, 2010; 2 Corporations Code section 1600, subdivision (a) provides that: “A shareholder or shareholders…”

Fowler v. Golden Pac. Bancorp. (Cal. Ct. App. 2022). “This is an action to compel an inspection of books and records pursuant to Corporations Code section 1600 et seq.1 Plaintiff Rick Fowler (Fowler) sought a writ of 1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Corporations Code.”

Anton Toutov v. Curative Labs Inc. (C.D. Cal. 2023). “The Court finds that Toutov raises triable 17 issues of fact regarding his owner-shareholder status.”

JAH Interests V, LLC v. Nutrition 53, Inc. (E.D. Cal. 2021). “Most significantly, Valtz did not address the 19 issue here, namely whether an individual may be held personally 20 liable for violating § 1601 et seq. Id.”

Anton Toutov v. Curative Labs Inc. (C.D. Cal. 2021). “California Corporations Code Section 1600 et seq.”

Billuni v. Myers CA4/3 (Cal. Ct. App. 2014). “(Corp. Code, §§ 1600, 1601; see Corp. Code, § 1604 [“In any action or proceeding under Section 1600 or 1601, if the court finds the failure of the corporation to comply with a proper demand thereunder was without justification, the court may award an amount sufficient to…”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.