Court Opinion

ID: 9849976
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:50:21.628233+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:29.910896
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I concur in the judgment, but I cannot agree that the testimony of the attorney who negotiated the insurance agreement was admissible. That testimony is a classic example of a violation of the parol evidence rule.
Since 1872, section 1625 of the Civil Code has provided that “The execution of a contract in writing, whether the law requires it to be written or *440not, supersedes all the negotiations or stipulations concerning its matter which preceded or accompanied the execution of the instrument. ” (Italics added.) To allow an attorney to give his obviously self-serving opinion of what the parties had in mind when they negotiated for the policy does violence to the unambiguous code section.
The case upon which the majority rely, Pacific Gas & E. Co. v. G. W. Thomas Drayage etc. Co. (1968) 69 Cal.2d 33 [69 Cal.Rptr. 561, 442 P.2d 641, 40 A.L.R.3d 1373], is an aberration, as I pointed out in my dissent in Delta Dynamics, Inc. v. Arioto (1968) 69 Cal.2d 525, 530 [72 Cal.Rptr. 785, 446 P.2d 785]. Use of parol evidence to elaborate on the terms of a contract renders the written word, heretofore deemed immutable, to be subject to alteration and expansion. What is written today may be reconstructed orally tomorrow. A rule that encourages or permits recitals of what the parties are believed to have meant, often based on fading memories of antecedent events and interpretation of the conduct and intent of others, has an untoward effect on the stability of the law of contracts and evidence.
The majority conclude that “the policy language was reasonably susceptible of the interpretation placed upon it by Mr. Ludlam.” Therein lies the evil of admitting parol evidence: the attorney who negotiated the written contract is allowed to place his interpretation on contract language, a function that should rest exclusively with the trial court.
Nevertheless, I agree with the majority that the insurance policy is clear on its face and on that basis alone—disregarding the erroneously admitted testimony of the attorney—the judgment must be affirmed.
Bird, C. J., concurred.