It is essential to the existence of a contract that there should be:
1. Parties capable of contracting;
2. Their consent;
3. A lawful object; and,
4. A sufficient cause or consideration.
Cal. Civ. Code § 1550
Definition
Applied in 146 court decisions — leading case 202 Cal. App. 3d 38 - Kruse v. Bank of America (1988)
Most recently applied in Balboa Capital v. Okoji Home (July 2024)
Enacted 1872.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.