Volume 006 Chapter 001-Public Writings-CCP §1896-1917

The statutory provisions relating to public writings are set forth  in California Code of Civil Procedure Sections 1895-1917. California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1896-1917 provides as follows: 

CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE
SECTION 1895-1917

1895.  Laws, whether organic or ordinary, are either written or
unwritten.


1896.  A written law is that which is promulgated in writing, and of
which a record is in existence.


1897.  The organic law is the Constitution of Government, and is
altogether written.  Other written laws are denominated statutes.
The written law of this State is therefore contained in its
Constitution and statutes, and in the Constitution and statutes of
the United States.


1898.  Statutes are public or private.  A private statute is one
which concerns only certain designated individuals, and affects only
their private rights.  All other statutes are public, in which are
included statutes creating or affecting corporations.


1899.  Unwritten law is the law not promulgated and recorded, as
mentioned in Section 1896, but which is, nevertheless, observed and
administered in the Courts of the country.  It has no certain
repository, but is collected from the reports of the decisions of the
Courts, and the treatises of learned men.


1904.  A judicial record is the record or official entry of the
proceedings in a Court of justice, or of the official act of a
judicial officer, in an action or special proceeding.


1908.  (a) The effect of a judgment or final order in an action or
special proceeding before a court or judge of this state, or of the
United States, having jurisdiction to pronounce the judgment or
order, is as follows:
   (1) In case of a judgment or order against a specific thing, or in
respect to the probate of a will, or the administration of the
estate of a decedent, or in respect to the personal, political, or
legal condition or relation of a particular person, the judgment or
order is conclusive upon the title to the thing, the will, or
administration, or the condition or relation of the person.
   (2) In other cases, the judgment or order is, in respect to the
matter directly adjudged, conclusive between the parties and their
successors in interest by title subsequent to the commencement of the
action or special proceeding, litigating for the same thing under
the same title and in the same capacity, provided they have notice,
actual or constructive, of the pendency of the action or proceeding.

   (b) A person who is not a party but who controls an action,
individually or in cooperation with others, is bound by the
adjudications of litigated matters as if he were a party if he has a
proprietary or financial interest in the judgment or in the
determination of a question of fact or of a question of law with
reference to the same subject matter or transaction; if the other
party has notice of his participation, the other party is equally
bound.
   At any time prior to a final judgment, as defined in Section 577,
a determination of whether the judgment, verdict upon which it was
entered, or a finding upon which it was entered is to be binding upon
a nonparty pursuant to this subdivision or whether such nonparty is
entitled to the benefit of this subdivision may, on the noticed
motion of any party or any nonparty that may be affected by this
subdivision, be made in the court in which the action was tried or in
which the action is pending on appeal.  If no such motion is made
before the judgment becomes final, the determination may be made in a
separate action.  If appropriate, a judgment may be entered or
ordered to be entered pursuant to such determination.


1908.5.  When a judgment or order of a court is conclusive, the
judgment or order must be alleged in the pleadings if there be an
opportunity to do so; if there be no such opportunity, the judgment
or order may be used as evidence.


1909.  Other judicial orders of a Court or Judge of this State, or
of the United States, create a disputable presumption, according to
the matter directly determined, between the same parties and their
representatives and successors in interest by title subsequent to the
commencement of the action or special proceeding, litigating for the
same thing under the same title and in the same capacity.


1910.  The parties are deemed to be the same when those between whom
the evidence is offered were on opposite sides in the former case,
and a judgment or other determination could in that case have been
made between them alone, though other parties were joined with both
or either.


1911.  That only is deemed to have been adjudged in a former
judgment which appears upon its face to have been so adjudged, or
which was actually and necessarily included therein or necessary
thereto.


1912.  Whenever, pursuant to the last four sections, a party is
bound by a record, and such party stands in the relation of a surety
for another, the latter is also bound from the time that he has
notice of the action or proceeding, and an opportunity at the surety'
s request to join in the defense.


1913.  (a) Subject to subdivision (b), the effect of a judicial
record of a sister state is the same in this state as in the state
where it was made, except that it can only be enforced in this state
by an action or special proceeding.
   (b) The authority of a guardian, conservator, or committee, or of
a personal representative, does not extend beyond the jurisdiction of
the government under which that person was invested with authority,
except to the extent expressly authorized by statute.


1914.  The effect of the judicial record of a Court of admiralty of
a foreign country is the same as if it were the record of a Court of
admiralty of the United States.


1916.  Any judicial record may be impeached by evidence of a want of
jurisdiction in the Court or judicial officer, of collusion between
the parties, or of fraud in the party offering the record, in respect
to the proceedings.


1917.  The jurisdiction sufficient to sustain a record is
jurisdiction over the cause, over the parties, and over the thing,
when a specific thing is the subject of the judgment.
 

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