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Cal. CCP § 751.51

This is the official text of Cal. CCP § 751.51, part of California’s Code of Civil Procedure — sets the procedural rules for civil lawsuits in California courts, including filing deadlines, discovery, and judgments.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Official statutory text

(a) An action authorized by this chapter may be commenced by:

(1) A county in which lands were affected by a disaster described in Section 751.50 with or without the joinder of a city or cities included in the county and within the area so affected.

(2) A city, if the disaster has affected land in the city.

(3) Any other entity or person owning or having an interest in or lien upon land affected by the disaster if granted permission by the court to bring the action, and if the county in which the land is located is made a party to the action.

(b) In an action authorized by this chapter every entity in actual and peaceable possession of, or having an estate or interest in or lien upon any of the land affected by the action, whose possession or evidence of estate or interest is either recorded or known to the plaintiffs, the city, if the land is within a city, the county in which the land is located, and the State of California must be designated in the complaint of the action, and given notice in the manner required by this chapter.

(c) All unknown entities, including owners, lien or interest claimants, heirs, devisees, legatees or assigns, may be described in the caption and complaint as “all entities claiming any interest in or lien upon, the real property herein described or any part of it.”

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.