Ostensible authority is such as a principal, intentionally or by want of ordinary care, causes or allows a third person to believe the agent to possess.
Cal. Civ. Code § 2317
Authority of Agents
Applied in 79 court decisions — leading case Hobart v. Hobart Estate Co. (1945)
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.