16914. (a) When a merger takes effect, all of the following apply:
(1) The separate existence of the disappearing partnerships and disappearing other business entities ceases and the surviving partnership or surviving other business entity shall succeed, without other transfer, act, or deed, to all the rights and property whether real, personal, or mixed, of each of the disappearing partnerships and disappearing other business entities and shall be subject to all the debts and liabilities of each in the same manner as if the surviving partnership or surviving other business entity had itself incurred them.
(2) All rights of creditors and all liens upon the property of each of the constituent partnerships and constituent other business entities shall be preserved unimpaired and may be enforced against the surviving partnership or the surviving other business entity to the same extent as if the debt, liability, or duty that gave rise to that lien had been incurred or contracted by it, provided that those liens upon the property of a disappearing partnership or disappearing other business entity shall be limited to the property affected thereby immediately before the time the merger is effective.
(3) Any action or proceeding pending by or against any disappearing partnership or disappearing other business entity may be prosecuted to judgment, which shall bind the surviving partnership or surviving other business entity, or the surviving partnership or surviving other business entity may be proceeded against or be substituted in the disappearing partnership’s or the disappearing other business entity’s place.
(b) (1) Unless a certificate of merger has been filed to effect the merger, the surviving foreign entity shall promptly notify the Secretary of State of the mailing address of its agent for service of process and its principal office, and of any change of address. To enforce an obligation of a partnership that has merged with a foreign partnership or foreign other business entity, the Secretary of State shall only be the agent for service of process in an action or proceeding against the surviving foreign partnership or foreign other business entity, if the agent designated for the service of process for that entity is a natural person and cannot be located with due diligence or if the agent is a corporation and no person to whom delivery may be made can be located with due diligence, or if no agent has been designated and if no one of the officers, partners, managers, members, or agents of the entity can be located after diligent search, and it is so shown by affidavit to the satisfaction of the court. The court then may make an order that service be made by personal delivery to the Secretary of State or to an assistant or deputy Secretary of State of two copies of the process together with two copies of the order, and the order shall set forth an address to which the process shall be sent by the Secretary of State. Service in this manner is deemed complete on the 10th day after delivery of the process to the Secretary of State.
(2) Upon receipt of the process and order and the fee set forth in subdivision (c) of Section 12197 of the Government Code, the Secretary of State shall give notice to the entity of the service of the process by forwarding by certified mail, return receipt requested, a copy of the process and order to the address specified in the order.
(3) The Secretary of State shall keep a record of all process served upon the Secretary of State and shall record therein the time of service and the Secretary of State’s action with respect thereto. The certificate of the Secretary of State, under the Secretary of State’s official seal, certifying to the receipt of process, the giving of notice thereof to the entity, and the forwarding of the process, shall be competent and prima facie evidence of the matters stated therein.
(c) A partner of the surviving partnership or surviving limited partnership, a member of the surviving limited liability company, a shareholder of the surviving corporation, or a holder of equity securities of the surviving other business entity, is liable for all of the following:
(1) All obligations of a party to the merger for which that person was personally liable before the merger.
(2) All other obligations of the surviving entity incurred before the merger by a party to the merger, but those obligations may be satisfied only out of property of the entity.
(3) All obligations of the surviving entity incurred after the merger takes effect, but those obligations may be satisfied only out of property of the entity if that person is a limited partner, a shareholder in a corporation, or, unless expressly provided otherwise in the articles of organization or other constituent documents, a member of a limited liability company or a holder of equity securities in a surviving other business entity.
(d) If the obligations incurred before the merger by a party to the merger are not satisfied out of the property of the surviving partnership or surviving other business entity, the general partners of that party immediately before the effective date of the merger, to the extent that party was a partnership or a limited partnership, shall contribute the amount necessary to satisfy that party’s obligations to the surviving entity in the manner provided in Section 16807 or in the limited partnership act of the jurisdiction in which the party was formed, as the case may be, as if the merged party were dissolved.
(e) A partner of a domestic disappearing partnership who does not vote in favor of the merger and does not agree to become a partner, member, shareholder, or holder of interest or equity securities of the surviving partnership or surviving other business entity shall have the right to dissociate from the partnership as of the date the merger takes effect. Within 10 days after the approval of the merger by the partners as required under this article, each domestic disappearing partnership shall send notice of the approval of the merger to each partner that has not approved the merger, accompanied by a copy of Section 16701 and a brief description of the procedure to be followed under that section if the partner wishes to dissociate from the partnership. A partner that desires to dissociate from a disappearing partnership shall send written notice of that dissociation within 30 days after the date of the notice of the approval of the merger. The disappearing partnership shall cause the partner’s interest in the entity to be purchased under Section 16701. The surviving entity is bound under Section 16702 by an act of a general partner dissociated under this subdivision, and the partner is liable under Section 16703 for transactions entered into by the surviving entity after the merger takes effect. The dissociation of a partner in connection with a merger pursuant to the terms of this subdivision shall not be deemed a wrongful dissociation under Section 16602.
(Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 617, Sec. 109. (SB 1202) Effective January 1, 2023.)
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