For the breach of an obligation not arising from contract, the measure of damages, except where otherwise expressly provided by this Code, is the amount which will compensate for all the detriment proximately caused thereby, whether it could have been anticipated or not.
Cal. Civ. Code § 3333
Damages for Wrongs
Applied in 256 court decisions — leading case 47 Cal. 3d 654 - Foley v. Interactive Data Corp. (1988)
Most recently applied in Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency v. Whittaker Corporation (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.