## Facts

- Real estate brokers arranged an exchange in which defendants traded an apartment building for two unimproved lots owned by third parties.
- The parties valued the apartment building at $188,000 and the lots at $350,000.
- Defendants executed (1) a $144,500 note secured by a first deed of trust on one lot to one of the lot owners, and (2) a $17,500 note secured by a second deed of trust on the same lot to the brokers.
- Each side agreed to pay the brokers a 5% commission; defendants paid their commission in cash.
- Instead of receiving the commission in cash from the lot owners, the brokers accepted defendants’ $17,500 note, and defendants’ obligation to the lot owners was reduced by the same amount.
- The first deed of trust was foreclosed, eliminating the security for the brokers’ second deed of trust.
- The brokers sued defendants on the unpaid balance of the $17,500 note; the trial court granted summary judgment for defendants on the ground that Code of Civil Procedure § 580b barred recovery.

## Issues

1. Whether, after the legislative amendment to Code of Civil Procedure § 580b, the statute bars a deficiency judgment on a purchase-related note held by a third-party broker who effectively financed a commission through a second deed of trust.

## Decision

- The California Supreme Court reversed the summary judgment.
- The court held that § 580b, as amended, did not bar the brokers’ action to recover the unpaid balance on the $17,500 note after the security was lost in foreclosure under the senior deed of trust.
- The matter was allowed to proceed, permitting the brokers to seek a personal judgment on the note.

## Legal Principles

- The scope of Code of Civil Procedure § 580b depends on the statute’s operative language; a post-decision amendment can narrow categories of protected purchase-money obligations.
- A broker who accepts a buyer’s note secured by a second deed of trust to satisfy a seller’s commission (with a corresponding reduction in the buyer’s obligation to the seller) functions as a third-party lender financing part of the purchase price.
- After the amendment to § 580b, anti-deficiency protection did not extend to this type of third-party broker-lender arrangement, even though similar facts had previously fallen within § 580b under the earlier statutory text.

## Conclusion

Because the amended version of § 580b did not cover the brokers’ commission-financing loan secured by a second deed of trust, the brokers were not barred from pursuing recovery on the note despite foreclosure under the first deed of trust.


Kistler v. Vasi, 71 Cal. 2d 261 (Cal. 1969)