§ 708.150.Corporation, Partnership, Association, Trust, Other Organization Ordered to Appear

An organization can't sit for an examination the way a person can, so this section builds a chain of responsibility. When an entity is served with an order to appear, it has to designate one or more officers, directors, managing agents, or other people familiar with its property and debts to show up and answer questions.

If the entity doesn't make that designation, the statute doesn't let the examination fizzle out. The order is instead deemed served on a specific default individual, worked out by entity type: for a corporation registered with the Secretary of State, the chief financial officer named in its most recent filing, or failing that the chief executive officer, or failing that the secretary; for a registered limited liability company, the first-named manager or member; for a registered limited partnership, the first-named general partner; and if the entity isn't registered or none of those roles is identified, whoever the creditor identifies by affidavit as familiar with the entity's finances, with that affidavit served alongside the order.

Service on the entity's own agent for service of process — through any method this code or the Corporations Code allows — counts as effective service on whichever default individual the statute points to. The entity can still appear through any authorized officer, director, or employee, attorney or not, and the arrest and contempt powers described in § 708.170 reach the natural persons ordered to appear under this section just as they would reach an individual debtor. Because these default rules are meant to work the same way everywhere, the section can't be varied by local court rule.