D. L. Godbey & Sons Construction Co. v. Deane

I dissent. The majority of this court, by a process disguised as statutory construction, strike the word “executed” from section 1698 of the Civil Code and invite fraudulent minded persons to perpetrate, and be rewarded for, fraudulent schemes unhampered longer by rules which for centuries the accumulated wisdom of mankind had deemed desirable.

The majority opinion is one further step in the court-erosion of salutary code provisions of this state which embody longstanding rules of Anglo-American law designed to prevent successful fraud and perjury. Provisions which have this purpose include…