When a contract is reduced to writing, the intention of the parties is to be ascertained from the writing alone, if possible; subject, however, to the other provisions of this Title.
Cal. Civ. Code § 1639
INTERPRETATION OF CONTRACTS
Applied in 170 court decisions — leading case Wyler Summit Partnership v. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (1998)
Most recently applied in Core Optical Technologies, LLC v. Nokia Corporation (May 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.