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Cal. CIV § 885.040

This is the official text of Cal. CIV § 885.040, part of California’s Civil Code — covers contracts, property ownership, personal rights, and other general civil obligations between private parties.

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) If a power of termination becomes obsolete, the power expires.

(b) As used in this section, a power of termination is obsolete if any of the following circumstances applies:

(1) The restriction to which the fee simple estate is subject is of no actual and substantial benefit to the holder of the power.

(2) Enforcement of the power would not effectuate the purpose of the restriction to which the fee simple estate is subject.

(3) It would be otherwise inequitable to enforce the power because of changed conditions or circumstances.

(c) No power of termination shall expire under this section during the life of the grantor if it arises from a grant by a natural person without consideration to a public entity or to a society, corporation, institution, or association exempt by the laws of this state from taxation.

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.