The California Codes

Contract defined

A contract is an agreement to do or not do a certain thing.

Essential elements of a contract

A valid contract requires four things: parties capable of contracting, their consent, a lawful object, and sufficient consideration.

Essential elements of consent

Consent must be free, mutual, and communicated by each party to the other.

Statute of Frauds — contracts that must be in writing

Certain contracts are invalid unless they are in writing and signed — for example, contracts that cannot be performed within a year, suretyship promises, real-property agreements, and some others.

Digital and lawful-object limits

The object of a contract must be lawful; agreements for an unlawful purpose are void.

What is unlawful

Something is unlawful if it is forbidden by law, contrary to good morals, or otherwise against public policy.

Measure of damages for breach of contract

For a breach of contract, damages are the amount that will compensate for all the detriment caused by the breach, as long as it was likely to result from it.

Interpretation — language governs

The language of a contract governs its interpretation if the language is clear and does not involve an absurdity.

Statute of Frauds — sale of goods

A contract to sell goods for $500 or more generally must be in a signed writing, with special rules for merchants and for goods already made or accepted.

Formation in general (sale of goods)

A contract for the sale of goods can be made in any way that shows agreement, even if the moment of making is undetermined or a term is left open.

Additional terms in acceptance (battle of the forms)

Under the UCC, an acceptance with additional or different terms can still form a contract, unlike the strict common-law mirror-image rule.

Unfair Competition Law

Unfair competition includes any unlawful, unfair, or fraudulent business act or practice, and false advertising.

General duty to abstain from injuring others

Everyone must abstain from injuring another person or that person's property, and from infringing on any of their rights.

Responsibility for one's own negligence

Everyone is responsible for injury caused to another by their lack of ordinary care, subject to comparative fault for the injured person's own negligence.

Punitive (exemplary) damages

In a non-contract case, a plaintiff may recover punitive damages if the defendant is guilty of oppression, fraud, or malice, proven by clear and convincing evidence.

Proposition 51 — several liability for non-economic damages

In a case with more than one at-fault party, each defendant pays non-economic damages (like pain and suffering) only in proportion to their own share of fault.

Slander defined

Slander is a false, unprivileged spoken statement that, among other things, charges a crime, imputes a disease, injures someone in their profession, or imputes impotence or unchastity.

Libel defined

Libel is a false and unprivileged written or visual publication that exposes a person to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or that injures their reputation.

Two-year limitations period for personal injury

A lawsuit for personal injury or wrongful death caused by another's wrongful act must generally be filed within two years.

Assault defined

Assault is an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on someone.

Battery defined

Battery is any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon another person.

Government Claims Act — claim-presentation deadline

A claim against a public entity for personal injury or property damage must generally be presented to the entity within six months of the injury.

Murder defined

Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought.

Malice defined (express and implied)

Malice can be express (a deliberate intent to kill) or implied (no considerable provocation, or a killing showing an abandoned and malignant heart).

Degrees of murder and felony murder

First-degree murder includes willful, deliberate, premeditated killings and killings during certain felonies; all other murder is second degree.

Manslaughter — voluntary, involuntary, vehicular

Manslaughter is an unlawful killing without malice — voluntary (heat of passion), involuntary, or vehicular.

Robbery defined

Robbery is taking personal property from someone's person or immediate presence, against their will, by force or fear.

Burglary defined

Burglary is entering a building or other listed structure with the intent to commit theft or any felony.

Theft defined

Theft consolidates larceny, embezzlement, and theft by false pretenses into a single crime of taking another's property.

Assault defined

Assault is an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on someone.

Battery defined

Battery is any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon another person.

Union of act and intent

In every crime there must be a union, or joint operation, of act and intent (or criminal negligence).

Attempt — elements

An attempt requires the specific intent to commit the crime plus a direct but ineffectual act toward committing it.

Conspiracy

Conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit a crime, together with an overt act toward it.

Principals — parties to crime

All persons who directly commit a crime, or who aid and abet its commission, are principals.

Persons capable of committing crime (defenses)

Certain people are not capable of committing crimes, including some minors and people acting under a mistake of fact or without criminal intent.

The hearsay rule

Hearsay is an out-of-court statement offered to prove the truth of what it asserts, and it is inadmissible unless an exception applies.

Relevant evidence defined

Relevant evidence is evidence that has any tendency to prove or disprove a disputed fact of consequence.

Duties of an attorney

This section lists the core duties of a California attorney, including maintaining respect for the courts, employing honest means, and maintaining client confidences.

Moral turpitude, dishonesty, corruption

An attorney who commits any act of moral turpitude, dishonesty, or corruption — whether or not it is a crime — is subject to discipline.

CPRA — catch-all balancing exemption

A public agency may withhold a record if, on the facts, the public interest in not disclosing clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

CPRA — response and justification for denial

When an agency denies a records request, it must justify the withholding and identify the exemption it relies on.