In revising a written instrument, the Court may inquire what the instrument was intended to mean, and what were intended to be its legal consequences, and is not confined to the inquiry what the language of the instrument was intended to be.
Cal. Civ. Code § 3401
Revision of Contracts
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case 214 Cal. App. 3d 1 - Appalachian Insurance v. McDonnell Douglas Corp. (1989)
Most recently applied in 137 Cal. App. 4th 964 - Cedars-Sinai Medical Center v. Shewry (March 2006)
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.