The language of a contract is to govern its interpretation, if the language is clear and explicit, and does not involve an absurdity.
Cal. Civ. Code § 1638
INTERPRETATION OF CONTRACTS
Applied in 335 court decisions — leading case 62 Cal. 2d 861 - Parsons v. Bristol Development Co. (1965)
Most recently applied in Kristen Schertzer v. Bank of America, Na (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.