Opinion ID: 3030007
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reasonable Expectation of Promisee

Text: When an ambiguity remains in the wording of the contract after application of the plain meaning rule in section 1644, under Bank of the West, supra, the next step is to go to California Civil Code section 1649, which states: “If the terms of a promise are in any respect ambiguous or uncertain, it must be interpreted in the sense in which the promisor [here, the prosecutor] believed, at the time of making it, that the promisee [here, Buckley] understood it.” Now the evidence from the colloquy becomes relevant. At the change of plea hearing on January 4, 1988, the prosecutor, reading from the plea agreement, asked Buckley if he understood that he was to be sentenced to “a maximum possible term of 15 years” with the possibility of parole for life. Buckley responded: “Yes.” Shortly thereafter, the prosecutor said: “Now as I stated before [sic: the prosecutor had stated no such thing] and it’s also contained in this Felony Disposition form, that at the time of sentencing the people will ask the Court to declare the murder to be murder in the second degree with a maximum term of 15 years to life.”6 Here again, the terms conflicted. 6 This exchange between the prosecutor and Buckley reminds one of another famous exchange: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.” Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, in THE ANNOTATED ALICE: THE DEFINITIVE EDITION 213 (Martin Gardner ed., Norton Publishers) (2000). 1106 BUCKLEY v. TERHUNE The prosecutor then asked Buckley if he agreed to testify as a witness for the state against two other defendants and Buckley responded: “Yes.” Buckley’s final answer in this exchange cannot reasonably be interpreted to mean that he was agreeing to a sentence of 15 years to life because he was never directly asked that question.7 Hence, the ambiguity still remains.