## Facts

- Verdean Fulton obtained a money judgment against Loyd R. Duro and filed and recorded the judgment in the Valley County Recorder’s office.
- At the time the judgment was recorded, Duro was a purchaser under an executory contract to buy real property in Valley County.
- Under the contract, Duro had not yet received legal title, but he held a transferable equitable purchaser’s interest in the property.
- After Fulton recorded her judgment, Duro transferred his purchaser’s interest to Le Roy and Dolores Samuelson.
- Fulton obtained a writ of execution and the sheriff proceeded against Duro’s interest in the property, ultimately conducting a sheriff’s sale at which Fulton was the purchaser.
- The Samuelsons intervened and moved to vacate the sheriff’s sale, arguing (1) a purchaser’s interest under an executory land contract was not “real estate” subject to a judgment lien under Idaho Code § 10-1110, and (2) the levy and sale were procedurally defective.
- The district court agreed with the Samuelsons’ lien argument and ruled that Fulton’s recorded judgment did not create a lien against Duro’s executory contract interest; the court granted the motion to vacate the sheriff’s sale.

## Issues

1. Whether a vendee’s equitable interest under an executory land-sale contract is an interest in “real estate” to which a recorded judgment lien attaches under Idaho Code § 10-1110 (where the contract, or notice of it, is recorded).
2. Whether the sheriff’s sale of that interest is valid when the levy and execution steps for real property were not carried out as required by Idaho Code § 8-506.

## Decision

- The court held that Duro’s equitable interest as a purchaser under the executory land contract was an interest in real property subject to a judgment lien under Idaho Code § 10-1110 when the contract (or a recorded notice identifying the parties and containing a legal description) appears in the record.
- The court reversed the district court’s ruling that no lien attached to Duro’s purchaser’s interest.
- The court held that the statutory method for levying on real property under Idaho Code § 8-506 is mandatory.
- Because the required levy/execution steps were not satisfied, the sheriff’s sale was not effective.
- The court therefore left in place the result vacating the sheriff’s sale, while recognizing that Fulton had a lien on Duro’s purchaser’s interest (and that the Samuelsons’ later-acquired interest was subject to that lien).

## Legal Principles

- A purchaser under an executory land-sale contract holds an equitable ownership interest in the land, and that equitable interest can be treated as “real estate” for purposes of Idaho Code § 10-1110.
- When the land contract, or a recorded notice of the contract that identifies the contracting parties and includes a legal description, is recorded in the county records, a judgment recorded in that county may attach as a lien to the purchaser’s equitable interest.
- A transferee who takes the purchaser’s interest after the judgment is recorded takes subject to any lien that had already attached to that interest.
- Idaho Code § 8-506 sets out required steps for levying upon and selling real property under a writ of execution; failure to follow those steps defeats the validity of the execution sale even if a valid lien exists.

## Conclusion

Fulton’s recorded judgment lien reached Duro’s equitable purchaser’s interest under the executory land contract, so the Samuelsons took that interest subject to the lien; however, because the levy and sale did not satisfy Idaho’s mandatory real-property execution procedures, the sheriff’s sale was properly set aside despite the existence of the lien.


Fulton v. Duro, 687 P.2d 1367 (1984)