## Facts

- Mary Pauline Cornelison sold a Van Nuys residence to Maurice and Leona Chanon in 1964, taking an $18,800 promissory note secured by a first deed of trust.
- The deed of trust required the trustors to pay property taxes and assessments, maintain the property, and provided for acceleration of the unpaid balance upon resale.
- The Chanons conveyed the property to O. John Kornbluth by grant deed that did not reference the note or deed of trust and contained no written assumption by Kornbluth.
- Kornbluth later sold the property to Richard Larkins in 1968.
- In January 1969, after Kornbluth’s sale, the county health department condemned the house as unfit for human habitation.
- The Chanons defaulted; Cornelison foreclosed under the deed of trust and purchased the property at the trustee’s sale for $21,921.42 (the debt balance plus foreclosure costs).
- Cornelison sued Kornbluth for (1) breach of covenants in the note and deed of trust, alleging a written agreement to be bound, and (2) tort damages for waste based on deterioration and loss of improvements and use.
- The trial court granted Kornbluth summary judgment.

## Issues

1. Whether a successor owner who takes title subject to a deed of trust is personally liable to the beneficiary for alleged breaches of the trustor’s covenants absent a written assumption, including under a theory that the covenants run with the land.
2. Whether the beneficiary raised a triable issue that the successor owner committed actionable waste that proximately impaired the security, sufficient to defeat summary judgment.

## Decision

- The California Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment for Kornbluth.
- Kornbluth was not personally liable for the deed-of-trust and note covenants because there was no competent evidence of an assumption agreement and the asserted covenants did not bind him personally as running covenants on this record.
- The waste claim failed because Cornelison did not present specific evidence showing waste attributable to Kornbluth and causally linked to the later condemnation and alleged losses.

## Legal Principles

- A grantee who acquires property subject to a deed of trust does not become personally liable on the trustor’s note or deed-of-trust covenants without an express assumption or other legally sufficient agreement.
- Covenants primarily tied to payment of the secured debt are generally treated as personal obligations of the original obligor rather than burdens automatically enforceable as running with the land against later owners.
- A beneficiary asserting waste must present competent evidence of actionable acts or omissions by the defendant that proximately cause impairment of the security; conclusory allegations are insufficient at summary judgment.
- A foreclosure purchase by the beneficiary for the full amount of the secured indebtedness and costs is a significant circumstance when evaluating claims for additional recovery based on alleged impairment of the security.

## Conclusion

The court held that a successor owner was not personally liable for deed-of-trust covenants without a written assumption and that the beneficiary’s waste theory could not proceed absent specific, causally connected proof of waste by that successor, so summary judgment for the successor owner was properly affirmed.


Cornelison v. Kornbluth, 15 Cal. 3d 590, 542 P.2d 981 (Cal. 1975)