An agency is ostensible when the principal intentionally, or by want of ordinary care, causes a third person to believe another to be his agent who is not really employed by him.
Cal. Civ. Code § 2300
Definition of Agency
Applied in 67 court decisions — leading case 45 Cal. 2d 811 - Seneris v. Haas (1955)
Most recently applied in Valentine v. Plum Healthcare Grp., LLC (July 2019)
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.