(a) The Attorney General may bring an action against any corporation or purported corporation in the name of the people of this state, upon the Attorney General’s own information or upon complaint of a private party, to procure a judgment dissolving the corporation and annulling, vacating or forfeiting its corporate existence upon any of the following grounds:
(1) The corporation has seriously offended against any provision of the statutes regulating corporations.
(2) The corporation has fraudulently abused or usurped corporate privileges or powers.
(3) The corporation has violated any provision of law by any act or default which under the law is a ground for forfeiture of corporate existence.
(4) The corporation has failed to pay to the Franchise Tax Board for a period of five years any tax imposed upon it by the Bank and Corporation Tax Law.
(b) If the ground of the action is a matter or act which the corporation has done or omitted to do that can be corrected by amendment of its articles or by other corporate action, such suit shall not be maintained unless (1) the Attorney General, at least 30 days prior to the institution of suit, has given the corporation written notice of the matter or act done or omitted to be done; and (2) the corporation has failed to institute proceedings to correct it within the 30-day period or thereafter fails to duly and properly make such amendment or take the corrective corporate action.
(c) In any such action the court may order dissolution or such other or partial relief as it deems just and expedient. The court also may appoint a receiver for winding up the affairs of the corporation or may order that the corporation be wound up by its board subject to the supervision of the court.
(d) Service of process on the corporation may be made pursuant to Chapter 17 (commencing with Section 1700) of Division 1 or by written notice to the president or secretary of the corporation at the address indicated in the corporation’s last tax return filed pursuant to the Bank and Corporation Tax Law. The Attorney General shall also publish one time in a newspaper of general circulation in the proper county a notice to the members of the corporation.
(Added by Stats. 1982, Ch. 1625, Sec. 3. Operative January 1, 1984.)