Guess v. Bernhardson
Annotate this CasePlaintiff Carol Guess appealed a judgment dismissing her action against defendants Mark and Ivy Bernhardson for a declaration that she still had a spousal support judgment lien against real property previously owned by her former husband, L. Donald Guess. The Bernhardsons purchased the property at issue from a bank after it conducted a trustee's sale on his trust deed on that property. On appeal, Carol argued the trial court erred by interpreting applicable statutes regarding judgment liens as fixing the amount of her support judgment lien at the time of her ex-husband’s encumbrance (i.e., trust deed) on the property at the amount then mature and owing (then zero dollars), and not at the amount owing at the time of the transfer to the Bernhardsons; and concluding the obligation of Husband under the marital dissolution judgment to maintain life insurance for her benefit was neither a money judgment nor a spousal support judgment on which a judgment lien could be created. Finding no reversible error in the trial court’s dismissal of Carol’s suit, the Court of Appeal affirmed.
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