San Diego County Carpenters Group Insurance v. Lorea

Opinion

BROWN (Gerald), P. J.

San Diego County Carpenters Group Insurance et al., (Carpenters) appeal a superior court order granting a dwelling-house exemption from a writ of execution based upon a recorded abstract of judgment against defendant Marty Lorea. Carpenters contend the dwelling-house exemption provided by Code of Civil Procedure

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section 690.31 should not apply to the Loreas’ home which was not exempt at the time the abstract of judgment was recorded.

In January 1973 Carpenters recorded an abstract of judgment for $2,377 against Marty Lorea.

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On June 11, 1979, Carpenters applied for a writ of execution on the Loreas’ home in satisfaction of the judgment.

On June 26, 1979, Lorea and his wife Joann recorded a declaration of homestead (Civ. Code, § 1237 et seq.).

In September 1979, the superior court granted an exemption for the home under section 690.31, subdivision (a)(1).

California Constitution, article XX, section 1.5 provides: “The Legislature shall protect, by law, from forced sale a certain portion of the homestead and other property of all heads of families.”

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Consistent with this mandate, since 1872 Civil Code section 1237 et seq., has provided a strict scheme by which a homeowner may exempt his home from execution of a judgment and forced sale.

In this case, between 1973, when the abstract of judgment was recorded, and 1979, when Carpenters applied for the writ of execution, the Legislature enacted section 690.31.

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This section describes the homestead exemption in terms of a “dwelling house” exemption, and enumerates the exceptions to it and the procedure for claiming the exemption. The purpose of section 690.31 is to give homeowners an exemption on their homes without having to follow the procedural rules involved in filing a declaration of homestead. In effect, the Legislature granted automatic homesteads to all owners who lived in homes in California (S