The common law, so far as it is not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, or of the state of Washington nor incompatible with the institutions and condition of society in this state, shall be the rule of decision in all the courts of this state.
RCW 4.04.010
Extent to which common law prevails.
Applied in 53 court decisions — leading case 117 Wash. 2d 148 - Wichert v. Cardwell (1991)
Most recently applied in In Re The Estate Of: Gerald R. Irwin (October 2019)
1891 c 17 s 1; Code 1881 s 1; 1877 p 3 s 1; 1862 p 83 s 1; RRS s 143
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: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.