A contract must be so interpreted as to give effect to the mutual intention of the parties as it existed at the time of contracting, so far as the same is ascertainable and lawful.
Cal. Civ. Code § 1636
INTERPRETATION OF CONTRACTS
Applied in 531 court decisions — leading case 2 Cal. 4th 1254 - Bank of the West v. Superior Court (1992)
Most recently applied in SR Construction v. RE Palm Springs (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.