Whenever, by the terms of an obligation, a party thereto incurs a forfeiture, or a loss in the nature of a forfeiture, by reason of his failure to comply with its provisions, he may be relieved therefrom, upon making full compensation to the other party, except in case of a grossly negligent, willful, or fraudulent breach of duty.
Cal. Civ. Code § 3275
RELIEF IN GENERAL
Applied in 96 court decisions — leading case 37 Cal. 2d 16 - Freedman v. Rector, Wardens & Vestrymen of St. Matthias Parish (1951)
Most recently applied in Tracht Gut, LLC v. Los Angeles County Treasurer & Tax Collector (September 2016)
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.