(a) Upon the filing of the certificate of merger and consolidation by the department of state or on such date subsequent thereto, not to exceed thirty days, as shall be set forth in such certificate, the merger or consolidation shall be effected.

(b) When such merger or consolidation has been effected:

(1) Such surviving or consolidated corporation shall thereafter, consistently with its certificate of incorporation as altered or established by the merger or consolidation, possess all the rights, privileges, immunities, powers and purposes of each of the constituent corporations.

(2) All the property, real and personal, including causes of action and every other asset of each of the constituent corporations, shall vest in such surviving or consolidated corporation without further act or deed, except as otherwise provided in paragraph (b) of section 907 (Approval by the Supreme Court). Except as the court may otherwise direct, as provided in section 8-1.1 of the Estates, Powers and Trusts Law, any disposition made in the will of a person dying domiciled in this state or in any other instrument executed under the laws of this state, taking effect after such merger or consolidation, to or for any of the constituent corporations shall inure to the benefit of the surviving or consolidated corporation. So far as is necessary for that purpose, or for the purpose of a like result with respect to a disposition governed by the law of any other jurisdiction, the existence of each constituent domestic corporation shall be deemed to continue in and through the surviving or consolidated corporation.

(3) The surviving or consolidated corporation shall assume and be liable for all the liabilities, obligations and penalties of each of the constituent corporations. No liability or obligation due or to become due, claim or demand for any cause existing against any such corporation, or any member, officer or director thereof, shall be released or impaired by such merger or consolidation. No action or proceeding, whether civil or criminal, then pending by or against any such constituent corporation, or any member, officer or director thereof, shall abate or be discontinued by such merger or consolidation, but may be enforced, prosecuted, settled or comprised as if such merger or consolidation had not occurred, or such surviving or consolidated corporation may be substituted in such action or special proceeding in place of any constituent corporation.

(4) In the case of a merger, the certificate of incorporation of the surviving corporation shall be automatically amended to the extent, if any, that changes in its certificate of incorporation are set forth in the plan of merger; and, in the case of a consolidation, the statements set forth in the certificate of consolidation and which are required or permitted to be set forth in a certificate of incorporation of a corporation formed under this chapter shall be its certificate of incorporation.