We assume that on an open subset of a submanifold M of an arbitrary Riemannian ambient space N the eigenspaces of the shape operator of M induce a foliation L whose leaves are spherical submanifolds of N. In this situation we derive a condition which characterizes when the leaves of L are complete Riemannian submanifolds of M (see Theorem 2.4). We apply this result to real hypersurfaces of complex space forms, in particular Hopf hypersurfaces (see Theorem 3.2 and Proposition 3.3).