SECTIONS 1855-1866 - California Statutes

CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE

SECTION 1855-1866

1855. When any map which has been recorded in the office of the
recorder of any county is injured, destroyed, lost, or stolen, any
person interested may file in the superior court of the county in
which the map was originally filed or recorded a verified petition in
writing alleging that the map has been injured, destroyed, lost, or
stolen without fault of the person making the application, and that
the petitioner has a true and correct copy of the original map which
he or she offers for record in the place of the original map. The
petition shall be accompanied by a copy of the true copy offered for
recording.
Upon the filing of the petition the clerk shall set it for hearing
by the court, and give notice of the hearing by causing notice of
the time and place of the hearing to be posted at the courthouse in
the county where the court is held at least 10 days prior to the
hearing. A copy of the petition and a copy of the true copy offered
for record shall be served upon the recorder of the county in which
the proceedings are brought at least 10 days prior to the hearing.
The court may order any further notice to be given as it deems
proper. At the time set for the hearing the court shall take evidence
for and against the petition, and if it appears to the court from
the evidence presented that the copy of the map submitted is a true
copy of the original map, it shall decree that the copy is a true
copy of the original map, and order the copy placed of record in the
office of the recorder in the place of the original map.
A certified copy of the decree shall accompany the true copy of
the map for record. When presented to the county recorder for record,
he or she shall place of record the copy of the map in the place of
the original map.
When placed of record the copy shall have the same effect as the
original map, and conveyances of property referring to the original
map shall have the same effect as though the original map had not
been injured, destroyed, lost, or stolen, and conveyances thereafter
made referring to the copy of the original map shall be deemed to
refer also to the original map.

1856. (a) Terms set forth in a writing intended by the parties as a
final expression of their agreement with respect to such terms as
are included therein may not be contradicted by evidence of any prior
agreement or of a contemporaneous oral agreement.
(b) The terms set forth in a writing described in subdivision (a)
may be explained or supplemented by evidence of consistent additional
terms unless the writing is intended also as a complete and
exclusive statement of the terms of the agreement.
(c) The terms set forth in a writing described in subdivision (a)
may be explained or supplemented by course of dealing or usage of
trade or by course of performance.
(d) The court shall determine whether the writing is intended by
the parties as a final expression of their agreement with respect to
such terms as are included therein and whether the writing is
intended also as a complete and exclusive statement of the terms of
the agreement.
(e) Where a mistake or imperfection of the writing is put in issue
by the pleadings, this section does not exclude evidence relevant to
that issue.
(f) Where the validity of the agreement is the fact in dispute,
this section does not exclude evidence relevant to that issue.
(g) This section does not exclude other evidence of the
circumstances under which the agreement was made or to which it
relates, as defined in Section 1860, or to explain an extrinsic
ambiguity or otherwise interpret the terms of the agreement, or to
establish illegality or fraud.
(h) As used in this section, the term agreement includes deeds and
wills, as well as contracts between parties.

1857. The language of a writing is to be interpreted according to
the meaning it bears in the place of its execution, unless the
parties have reference to a different place.

1858. In the construction of a statute or instrument, the office of
the Judge is simply to ascertain and declare what is in terms or in
substance contained therein, not to insert what has been omitted, or
to omit what has been inserted; and where there are several
provisions or particulars, such a construction is, if possible, to be
adopted as will give effect to all.

1859. In the construction of a statute the intention of the
Legislature, and in the construction of the instrument the intention
of the parties, is to be pursued, if possible; and when a general and
particular provision are inconsistent, the latter is paramount to
the former. So a particular intent will control a general one that is
inconsistent with it.

1860. For the proper construction of an instrument, the
circumstances under which it was made, including the situation of the
subject of the instrument, and of the parties to it, may also be
shown, so that the Judge be placed in the position of those whose
language he is to interpret.

1861. The terms of a writing are presumed to have been used in
their primary and general acceptation, but evidence is nevertheless
admissible that they have a local, technical, or otherwise peculiar
signification, and were so used and understood in the particular
instance, in which case the agreement must be construed accordingly.

1862. When an instrument consists partly of written words and
partly of a printed form, and the two are inconsistent, the former
controls the latter.

1864. When the terms of an agreement have been intended in a
different sense by the different parties to it, that sense is to
prevail against either party in which he supposed the other
understood it, and when different constructions of a provision are
otherwise equally proper, that is to be taken which is most favorable
to the party in whose favor the provision was made.

1865. A written notice, as well as every other writing, is to be
construed according to the ordinary acceptation of its terms. Thus a
notice to the drawers or indorsers of a bill of exchange or
promissory note, that it has been protested for want of acceptance or
payment, must be held to import that the same has been duly
presented for acceptance or payment and the same refused, and that
the holder looks for payment to the person to whom the notice is
given.

1866. When a statute or instrument is equally susceptible of two
interpretations, one in favor of natural right, and the other against
it, the former is to be adopted.