A contract may be explained by reference to the circumstances under which it was made, and the matter to which it relates.
Cal. Civ. Code § 1647
INTERPRETATION OF CONTRACTS
Applied in 146 court decisions — leading case 62 Cal. 2d 861 - Parsons v. Bristol Development Co. (1965)
Most recently applied in 12 Cal. 5th 669 - Olson v. Doe (January 2022)
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.