CIV § 1708

No contract needed: CIV § 1708 duty to not injure

California Civil Code § 1708: Every person is bound, without contract, to abstain from injuring the person or property of another, or infringing their rights.

Official text CIV § 1708 — California

Every person is bound, without contract, to abstain from injuring the person or property of another, or infringing upon any of his or her rights.

Text as published in the 2026 snapshot of the code.

Source: Vaquill Open US Law, compiled from official state publishers (huggingface.co), reproduced under license CC BY 4.0.

Read this provision at the official source →

What it actually says

Section 1708 is the shortest general statement of obligation in the California codes: every person is bound, without contract, to abstain from injuring the person or property of another, or infringing upon any of his or her rights. The three words that do the work are "without contract". This duty is not something you take on by agreeing to it; it exists between strangers, and it is why a claim can be brought by someone who never dealt with the defendant at all.

The sentence is deliberately wider than negligence. It covers injury to the person, injury to property, and infringement of rights, and it is the heading provision for the chapter of specific torts that follows — deceit in §§ 1709 and 1710, invasion of privacy in the § 1708.8 series, and the statutory torts added over the years, all of which are numbered as elaborations of this one duty. Section 1714 then supplies the fault standard for the ordinary case.

Because it is so general, § 1708 is rarely the whole answer to anything. It states that a duty exists rather than what breaching it requires or what it costs; there is no standard of care in it, no list of protected interests, and no remedy. It is cited to establish that the obligation was owed at all — which matters where no contract, no statute and no special relationship connects the parties — and then the specific section or the general negligence rule carries the case. Working out which of those applies to a particular set of facts is a question for a lawyer.

When it applies

Damage caused by someone you have no contract or relationship with
Property harmed by a stranger's activity next door
A claim where the other side says they owed you no duty at all
Conduct that harmed you but does not fit a named tort neatly
An interference with a right rather than with a thing
Deliberate damage where there is no agreement between the parties

What this section does not say

It does not set a standard of care. "Abstain from injuring" says nothing about how careful is careful enough; that is § 1714's ordinary care standard.
It does not create a remedy. The section states a duty; what is recoverable comes from the damages provisions, principally § 3333.
It is not a claim for breach of contract. The words "without contract" mark the boundary: obligations you undertook are governed by the contract provisions, not by this one.
It does not make every harm actionable. Loss caused by lawful competition, by refusing to deal, or by conduct the law permits is not an injury this section reaches.
It does not displace the specific torts. Where the conduct is deceit, defamation, invasion of privacy or another named wrong, the elements of that wrong govern.

Worked examples

Invented situations, written to show how the wording bites. They are not real cases, not judgments and not precedent, and nothing here predicts what would happen in yours.

Illustrative example

Work on a neighbouring building sends grit and dust through an open shopfront and ruins a display of stock. The shop has no contract with the contractor, who says its agreement is with the building owner.

How the wording applies

Section 1708 states a duty, owed without contract, to abstain from injuring another's property. The absence of an agreement is the point rather than a defence. What the outcome actually turns on is whether the work was done with ordinary care under section 1714, because this section states the duty and not the standard.

How the parties settled it

The contractor pays the wholesale cost of the spoiled stock and puts up sheeting for the rest of the job, and the shop makes no claim for lost trade.

Illustrative example

A visitor to a block of flats props a fire door open to move furniture and leaves it that way overnight. Rain gets in and damages an item stored in the hallway by another resident.

How the wording applies

There is no contract between the two residents, and section 1708 is what establishes that a duty was owed at all. The fact this turns on is whether leaving the door open was a want of ordinary care in the circumstances: a few minutes in dry weather is not the same as an unattended door left open overnight in a storm.

How the parties settled it

The visitor pays the repair cost of the damaged item, and the residents agree a short written rule about propping doors during moves.

How courts have read it

Decisions construing this provision. The question and the summary are ours; the quoted sentence is the court's own words, taken from the published opinion. These are the decisions in our corpus, not every decision there is, and nothing here predicts any other case. Reported 1991 to 2017.

Macy's California, Inc. v. Superior Court, 41 Cal. App. 4th 744 (1995)

Court of Appeal

What the court had to decide

What degree of physical injury is required to support parasitic damages for fear of disease under Civil Code section 1708?

What it held

A personal injury under Civil Code section 1708 requires actual harm or detrimental change to the body, not merely a needle stick or other minor physical impact.

In the court's words

Actual damage in the sense of harm or detrimental change to the body is required.

Source: Caselaw Access Project, CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain dedication).

Related sections

CIV § 1714 Everyone responsible for negligence: CIV § 1714 CIV § 3333 Full Compensation for All Detriment Caused | CIV § 3333 CIV § 1709 Liable for damage from willful deceit: CIV § 1709

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We copy this text from the official publisher and re-check it against that source on every page load, but we cannot guarantee it is complete, current or free of error, and we accept no liability for any reliance on it. An amendment can take effect before a consolidation catches up. The publisher's own copy is linked below; where the two differ, it is the official one that counts.

This page reproduces the text of CIV § 1708 in force at the date shown and explains it in general terms. It is not legal advice and takes no account of the circumstances of your case, which can change the answer completely. For a live dispute, for limitation periods, and before taking any step in court, consult a qualified lawyer in California.

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