This chapter may be cited as the Destroyed Land Records Relief Law.
§ 751.01.Title of Law
Title 10. Actions In Particular Cases · Chapter 3.5. Actions to Re-establish Destroyed Land Records · Enacted 1953 · no amendments on record · Last verified July 28, 2026
In one sentenceSection 751.01 gives this chapter its short name, the Destroyed Land Records Relief Law, the label used throughout Chapter 3.5 and by other statutes that cross-reference this re-establishment procedure.
Full Text of § 751.01
Plain-English Summary
A short title is a label, not a rule of its own, but it tells you what problem the rest of Chapter 3.5 solves. This chapter exists for the moment when a county recorder's records covering real property have been lost or destroyed — by fire, flood, earthquake, or any other cause — and someone needs a court judgment that stands in for the records that are gone.
Everything that follows in this chapter, from the in rem action described in § 751.02 through the alternative notice-of-ownership procedure in § 751.23, operates under this name. When another statute or a recorded document refers to the Destroyed Land Records Relief Law, it means this chapter.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Chapter 3.5 of the Code of Civil Procedure officially called?
The Destroyed Land Records Relief Law, as § 751.01 provides.
Does the short title change how the chapter works?
No. It's a label for reference purposes. The substance of the procedure — who can sue, what evidence is needed, and how judgment operates — comes from the sections that follow.
Is this the same as the Cullen Earthquake Act?
No. That's a separate, later chapter (3.6, §§ 751.50-751.65) aimed at a different problem: boundaries physically moved by earthquake-caused ground shifts, rather than records destroyed by disaster.
Amendment History
Added by Stats. 1953, Ch. 52.
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
the Deering's California Codes Annotated / vLex. Enacted by the California Legislature.
Last verified July 28, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: destroyed land records relief lawcalifornia destroyed county records act