2005 California Code of Civil Procedure Sections 2-33 PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS

CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE
SECTION 2-33

2.  This Code takes effect at twelve o'clock noon, on the first day
of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-three.
3.  No part of it is retroactive, unless expressly so declared.
4.  The rule of the common law, that statutes in derogation thereof
are to be strictly construed, has no application to this Code.  The
Code establishes the law of this State respecting the subjects to
which it relates, and its provisions and all proceedings under it are
to be liberally construed, with a view to effect its objects and to
promote justice.
5.  The provisions of this Code, so far as they are substantially
the same as existing statutes, must be construed as continuations
thereof, and not as new enactments.
6.  All persons who at the time this Code takes effect hold office
under any of the Acts repealed, continue to hold the same according
to the tenure thereof, except those offices which are not continued
by one of the Codes adopted at this session of the Legislature.
7.  When any office is abolished by the repeal of any Act, and such
Act is not in substance reenacted or continued in either of the
Codes, such office ceases at the time the Codes take effect.
8.  No action or proceeding commenced before this Code takes effect,
and no right accrued, is affected by its provisions, but the
proceedings therein must conform to the requirements of this Code as
far as applicable.
(9.)  Section Nine.  When a limitation or period of time prescribed
in any existing statute for acquiring a right or barring a remedy, or
for any other purpose, has begun to run before this Code goes into
effect, and the same or any limitation is prescribed in this Code,
the time which has already run shall be deemed part of the time
prescribed as such limitation by this Code.
10.  Holidays within the meaning of this code are every Sunday and
any other days that are specified or provided for as judicial
holidays in Section 135.
11.  Wherever any notice or other communication is required by this
code to be mailed by registered mail by or to any person or
corporation, the mailing of such notice or other communication by
certified mail shall be deemed to be a sufficient compliance with the
requirements of law.
12.  The time in which any act provided by law is to be done is
computed by excluding the first day, and including the last, unless
the last day is a holiday, and then it is also excluded.
12a.  (a) If the last day for the performance of any act provided or
required by law to be performed within a specified period of time is
a holiday, then that period is hereby extended to and including the
next day which is not a holiday. For purposes of this section,
"holiday" means all day on Saturdays, all holidays specified in
Section 135 and, to the extent provided in Section 12b, all days
which by terms of Section 12b are required to be considered as
holidays.
   (b) This section applies also to Sections 659, 659a, 946, and 974
to 982, inclusive, and the periods of time severally therein
prescribed or provided for, and to all other provisions of law,
however stated or wherever expressed, providing or requiring an act
to be performed on a particular day or within a specified period of
time.  The mention of these sections is not intended and shall not be
construed to exclude the application of this section to any other
provisions of law, whether the latter are expressed in this or any
other code or statute, ordinance, rule, or regulation.
12b.  If any city, county, state, or public office, other than a
branch office, is closed for the whole of any day, insofar as the
business of that office is concerned, that day shall be considered as
a holiday for the purposes of computing time under Sections 12 and
12a.
13.  Whenever any act of a secular nature, other than a work of
necessity or mercy, is appointed by law or contract to be performed
upon a particular day, which day falls upon a holiday, such act may
be performed upon the next business day with the same effect as if it
had been performed upon the day appointed.
13a.  Any act required by law to be performed on a particular day or
within a specified period of time may be performed (but is not
hereby required to be performed) on a special holiday as that term is
used in Section 6705 of the Government Code, with like effect as if
performed on a day which is not a holiday.
13b.  Any act required by law to be performed on a particular day or
within a specified period may be performed (but is not hereby
required to be performed) on a Saturday, with like effect as if
performed on a day which is not a holiday.
14.  When the seal of a Court, public officer, or person is required
by law to be affixed to any paper, the word "seal" includes an
impression of such seal upon the paper alone as well as upon wax or a
wafer affixed thereto.
15.  Words giving a joint 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.
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.
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 the singular; the word "person" includes a
corporation as well as a natural person; the word "county" includes
"city and county"; writing includes printing and typewriting; oath
includes affirmation or declaration; and every mode of oral
statement, under oath or affirmation, is embraced by the term
"testify," and every written one in the term "depose"; signature or
subscription includes mark, when the person cannot write, his or her
name being written near it by a person who writes his or her own name
as a witness; provided, that when a signature is by mark it must, in
order that the same may be acknowledged or may serve as the
signature to any sworn statement, be witnessed by two persons who
must subscribe their own names as witness thereto.
   (b) The following words have in this code the signification
attached to them in this section, unless otherwise apparent from the
context:
   (1) The word "property" includes both real and personal property.
   (2) The words "real property" are coextensive with lands,
tenements, and hereditaments.
   (3) The words "personal property" include money, goods, chattels,
things in action, and evidences of debt.
   (4) The word "month" means a calendar month, unless otherwise
expressed.
   (5) The word "will" includes codicil.
   (6) The word "writ" signifies an order or precept in writing,
issued in the name of the people, or of a court or judicial officer,
and the word "process" signifies a writ or summons issued in the
course of judicial proceedings.
   (7) The word "state," when applied to the different parts of the
United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories,
and the words "United States" may include the district and
territories.
   (8) The word "section," whenever hereinafter employed, refers to a
section of this code, unless some other code or statute is expressly
mentioned.
   (9) The word "affinity," when applied to the marriage relation,
signifies the connection existing in consequence of marriage, between
each of the married persons and the blood relatives of the other.
   (10) The word "sheriff" shall include "marshal."
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.
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.
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.
21.  These remedies are divided into two classes:
   1. Actions; and,
   2. Special proceedings.
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.
23.  Every other remedy is a special proceeding.
24.  Actions are of two kinds:
   1. Civil; and,
   2. Criminal.
25.  A civil action arises out of:
   1. An obligation;
   2. An injury.
(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.
27.  An injury is of two kinds:
   1. To the person; and,
   2. To property.
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.
29.  Every other injury is an injury to the person.
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.
31.  THE PENAL CODE defines and provides for the prosecution of a
criminal action.
32.  When the violation of a right admits of both a civil and
criminal remedy, the right to prosecute the one is not merged in the
other.
32.5.  The "jurisdictional classification" of a case means its
classification as a limited civil case or  an unlimited civil case.
33.  A prosecuting attorney, in his or her discretion, may assist in
the civil resolution of a violation of an offense described in Title
13 (commencing with Section 450) of Part 1 of the Penal Code in lieu
of filing a criminal complaint.


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