How have courts interpreted or interpreted the word "or" and "and" in legislation?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from Citizen Advocates, Inc. v. Board of Supervisors, 146 Cal.App.3d 171, 194 Cal.Rptr. 61 (Cal. App. 1983):

"... [T]he use or misuse of the words 'or' and 'and' interchangably in legislation has been the subject of frequent animadversion on the part of courts; so much so, in fact, that the solution of the question as to whether the framers of a law intended, whichever of these words was used, to mean 'or' or 'and' has come to depend almost wholly upon the context in which one or the [146 Cal.App.3d 177] other of these words appears and the reasons underlying the legislation and which would be conserved by the use of disjunctive or conjunctive forms of speech regardless of the particular word employed. This was made plain by this court in the case of Washburn v. Lyons, 97 Cal. 314 [32 Pac. 310], wherein the word 'and' in a statute was construed to mean 'or'; and was quite clearly stated and argued with much citation of authority

Page 65

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