Section 1601 Of Chapter 3. Official Writings Affecting Property From California Evidence Code >> Division 11. >> Chapter 3.
1601
. (a) Subject to subdivisions (b) and (c), when in any action
it is desired to prove the contents of the official record of any
writing lost or destroyed by conflagration or other public calamity,
after proof of such loss or destruction, the following may, without
further proof, be admitted in evidence to prove the contents of such
record:
(1) Any abstract of title made and issued and certified as correct
prior to such loss or destruction, and purporting to have been
prepared and made in the ordinary course of business by any person
engaged in the business of preparing and making abstracts of title
prior to such loss or destruction; or
(2) Any abstract of title, or of any instrument affecting title,
made, issued, and certified as correct by any person engaged in the
business of insuring titles or issuing abstracts of title to real
estate, whether the same was made, issued, or certified before or
after such loss or destruction and whether the same was made from the
original records or from abstract and notes, or either, taken from
such records in the preparation and upkeeping of its plant in the
ordinary course of its business.
(b) No proof of the loss of the original writing is required other
than the fact that the original is not known to the party desiring
to prove its contents to be in existence.
(c) Any party desiring to use evidence admissible under this
section shall give reasonable notice in writing to all other parties
to the action who have appeared therein, of his intention to use such
evidence at the trial of the action, and shall give all such other
parties a reasonable opportunity to inspect the evidence, and also
the abstracts, memoranda, or notes from which it was compiled, and to
take copies thereof.