(a) If a person who lacks legal capacity to make decisions, who has no guardian or conservator of the estate, and who has been admitted or committed to the State Department of State Hospitals for placement in a state hospital, is the owner of any property, the State Department of State Hospitals, acting through its designated officer, may apply to the superior court of the proper county for its appointment as guardian or conservator of the person’s estate.

(b) For the purposes of this section, the State Department of State Hospitals is hereby made a corporation and may act as executor, administrator, guardian or conservator of estates, assignee, receiver, depositary, or trustee, under appointment of any court or by authority of any law of this state, and may transact business in that capacity in like manner as an individual, and for this purpose may sue and be sued in any of the courts of this state.

(c) If a person admitted or committed to the State Department of State Hospitals dies, leaving an estate, and having no relatives at the time residing within this state, the State Department of State Hospitals may apply for letters of administration of his or her estate and, in the discretion of the court, letters of administration may be issued to the department. When the State Department of State Hospitals is appointed as guardian, conservator, or administrator, the department shall be appointed as guardian, conservator, or administrator without bond. The officer designated by the department shall be required to give a surety bond in an amount deemed necessary from time to time by the director, but in no event shall the initial bond be less than ten thousand dollars ($10,000), which bond shall be for the joint benefit of the several estates and the State of California. The State Department of State Hospitals shall receive any reasonable fees for its services as the guardian, conservator, or administrator as the court allows. The fees paid to the State Department of State Hospitals for its services as guardian, conservator, or administrator of the various estates may be used as a trust account from which may be drawn expenses for filing fees, bond premiums, court costs, and other expenses required in the administration of the various estates. Whenever the balance remaining in the trust fund account shall exceed a sum deemed necessary by the department for the payment of expenses, the excess shall be paid quarterly by the department into the State Treasury to the credit of the General Fund.

(Amended by Stats. 2014, Ch. 144, Sec. 124. (AB 1847) Effective January 1, 2015.)