Following Jara v. Suprema Meats, Inc. (2004) 121 Cal.App.4th 1238, this decision holds that Corp. Code 1601 requires a California corporation to allow a shareholder to inspect the corporation’s records, but only at the location where those records are ordinarily maintained. Here, the corporation maintained the records in Illinois. It was not required to bring them to California for inspection at the shareholder’s demand, even though the corporation was incorporated in California. Here, the corporation actually complied with the shareholder’s demand and shipped its records to its California office, but the shareholder contended had not shipped all the records the shareholder demanded to inspect. The shareholder’s suit to inspect the unshipped documents was properly dismissed as he had no right to inspect any of the corporation’s Illinois-maintained documents in California.
California Court of Appeal, First District, Division 5 (Simons, J.); June 16, 2016; 2016 WL 3381956