Words in a contract which are wholly inconsistent with its nature, or with the main intention of the parties, are to be rejected.
Cal. Civ. Code § 1653
INTERPRETATION OF CONTRACTS
Applied in 16 court decisions — leading case 26 Cal. 4th 758 - Safeco Insurance of America v. Robert S. (2001)
Most recently applied in 2024 IL App (4th) 230250 - Behrouz v. Freeport Renaisaance LLC. (April 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.