§ 1604.Property Subject to Delivery to State If Last Known Address of Owner In State

Before California can claim property from the federal government, the state has to be the one entitled to it, and this section sets the address-based test for intangible property along with a possession-based test for tangible property. Intangible property, plus whatever interest or other increase it has earned, is subject to delivery to California if the owner's last known address is here. If one owner's address is in California but another interested owner's address is unknown, the unknown address is presumed to also be in California; if known owners are split between California and other states, an unknown owner's address is presumed to be in California only if the federal agency first came into possession of the property here. And if federal records don't show any owner's address at all, California is still presumed to be the situs if the agency first acquired the property within the state.

Whenever an address is presumed to be in California under this section, the law goes one step further and presumes it falls within Sacramento County specifically, tying the whole framework's situs question to whether the owner's last known or presumed address places the property here. Tangible property works differently: it's subject to delivery to California based only on where the federal agency holding it first acquired possession, without any address inquiry at all.