Varcoe v. Lee

In Varcoe v. Lee (1919) 180 Cal. 338, the Supreme Court cautioned that "if there were any possibility of dispute," the fact cannot be judicially noticed. Similarly, "'"the power of judicial notice is as to matters claimed to be matters of general knowledge one to be used with caution. If there is any doubt whatever either as to the fact itself or as to its being a matter of common knowledge, evidence should be required."'" ( Mack v. State Board of Education (1964) 224 Cal. App. 2d 370, 373-374.) Judicial notice is a judicial short cut, a doing away with the formal necessity for evidence because there is no real necessity for it. So far as matters of common knowledge are concerned, it is saying that there is no need of formally offering evidence of those things because practically everyone knows them in advance and there can be no question about them. ( Varcoe v. Lee, supra, 180 Cal. 338 at p. 344.)