Legal Question in Business Law in California

It is called breach of contract, for which you can file suit as necessary, and try to prove your case. Hopefully, you have a written contract. If you need legal counsel for this, feel free to contact me.

If there was not a contract, then you have a quantum meruit action. Contact me directly.

To answer your question directly, you don't need a code provision (though I think there is one somewhere in the Civil Code) in order to enforce a contract. It also doesn't matter what the industry is or whether or not the contractor has used the subcontractor's work yet. If the amount owed is $7,500 or less, you can sue in small claims court. If you want to collect more than that, you'll need to file a regular breach of contract action in the Superior Court.

Depending on exactly what work you did, and the terms and conditions under which you worked, it is also possible that you technically were not truely a subcontractor, but in fact were an employee working under an employment contract. It is very common for companies who need workers on a part-time or project basis to call them subcontractors and deprive them of the rights of employees, but then treat them effectively as employees. When they do that the worker becomes a statutory employee and can use the Labor Commission to collect the pay they are owed.