authority to three or more public officers or other persons are construed as giving such authority to a majority of them, unless it is otherwise expressed in the Act giving the authority.
(Enacted 1872.)
16. Words and phrases are construed according to the context and the approved usage of the language; but technical words and phrases, and such others as have acquired a peculiar and appropriate meaning in law, or are defined in the succeeding section, are to be construed according to such peculiar and appropriate meaning or definition.
(Enacted 1872.)
17. (a) Words used in this code in the present tense include the future as well as the present. Words used in the masculine gender include the feminine and neuter. The singular number includes the plural and the plural number includes the singular.
(b) As used in this code, the following words have the following meanings, unless otherwise apparent from the context:
(1) “Affinity” signifies the connection existing in consequence of marriage, between each of the married persons and the blood relatives of the other when applied to the marriage relation.
(2) “County” includes “city and county.”
(3) “Electronic signature” means an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with an electronic record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the electronic record.
(4) “Month” means a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed.
(5) “Oath” includes an affirmation or declaration.
(A) “Depose” includes any written statement made under oath or affirmation.
(B) “Testify” includes any mode of oral statement made under oath or affirmation.
(6) “Person” includes a corporation as well as a natural person.
(7) “Process” signifies a writ or summons issued in the course of a judicial proceeding.
(8) “Property” includes both personal and real property.
(A) “Personal property” includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt.
(B) “Real property” is coextensive with lands, tenements, and hereditaments.
(9) “Section” refers to a section of this code, unless some other code or statute is expressly mentioned.
(10) “Sheriff” includes marshal.
(11) “Signature” or “subscription” includes a mark of a person’s name, if the person cannot write, with his or her name being written near it by a person who writes his or her own name as a witness. In order that a mark may be acknowledged or serve as the signature to any sworn statement, it shall be witnessed by two persons who shall subscribe their own names as witnesses thereto.
(12) “State” includes the District of Columbia and the territories when applied to the different parts of the United States, and the words “United States” may include the district and territories.
(13) “Will” includes codicil.
(14) “Writ” means an order or precept in writing, issued in the name of the people, or of a court or judicial officer.
(15) “Writing” includes printing and typewriting.
(Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 32, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2016.)
18. No statute, law, or rule is continued in force because it is consistent with the provisions of this Code on the same subject; but in all cases provided for by this Code, all statutes, laws, and rules heretofore in force in this State, whether consistent or not with the provisions of this Code, unless expressly continued in force by it, are repealed and abrogated. This repeal or abrogation does not revive any former law heretofore repealed, nor does it affect any right already existing or accrued, or any action or proceeding already taken, except as in this Code provided; nor does it affect any private statute not expressly repealed.
(Enacted 1872.)
19. This Act, whenever cited, enumerated, referred to, or amended, may be designated simply as “The Code of Civil Procedure,” adding, when necessary, the number of the section.
(Enacted 1872.)
20. Judicial remedies are such as are administered by the Courts of justice, or by judicial officers empowered for that purpose by the Constitution and statutes of this State.
(Enacted 1872.)
21. These remedies are divided into two classes:
1. Actions; and,
2. Special proceedings.
(Enacted 1872.)
22. An action is an ordinary proceeding in a court of justice by which one party prosecutes another for the declaration, enforcement, or protection of a right, the redress or prevention of a wrong, or the punishment of a public offense.
(Amended by Stats. 1933, Ch. 742.)
23. Every other remedy is a special proceeding.
(Enacted 1872.)
24. Actions are of two kinds:
1. Civil; and,
2. Criminal.
(Enacted 1872.)
25. A civil action arises out of:
1. An obligation;
2. An injury.
(Enacted 1872.)
[26.] Section Twenty-six. An obligation is a legal duty, by which one person is bound to do or not to do a certain thing, and arises from:
One — Contract; or,
Two — Operation of law.
(Amended by Code Amendments 1873-74, Ch. 383.)
27. An injury is of two kinds:
1. To the person; and,
2. To property.
(Enacted 1872.)
28. An injury to property consists in depriving its owner of the benefit of it, which is done by taking, withholding, deteriorating, or destroying it.
(Enacted 1872.)
29. Every other injury is an injury to the person.
(Enacted 1872.)
30. A civil action is prosecuted by one party against another for the declaration, enforcement or protection of a right, or the redress or prevention of a wrong.
(Amended
