Opinion ID: 1143719
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: status of carmen's judgment lien after execution sale

Text: Carmen's attorney announced prior to the execution sale of each parcel of real property that it was being sold subject to Carmen's continuing lien. Carmen certainly had a judgment lien in the property prior to the execution sale because her lien provided the very basis for the execution sale itself. See I.C. §§ 10-1110; 11-101; 11-104; 11-201; 11-301. However, the Idaho Code entitled Carmen to a judgment lien in the property of only the judgment debtor, George. See I.C. § 10-1110. Since judgment liens are creatures of statute, Carmen's rights must be adjudicated within the statutory framework. Messenger v. Burns, 86 Idaho 26, 29, 382 P.2d 913, 914-15 (1963). Once George's property was sold at execution and the certificate of sale was delivered to the execution purchaser conveying legal title to him, then Carmen lost her judgment lien against the property sold. See I.C. § 10-1110; Petty v. Petty, 70 Idaho 473, 478-79, 223 P.2d 158, 160-61 (1950). Furthermore, Carmen levied execution on George's property for satisfaction of his matured debt of $100,000 plus interest. By her failure to bid the $100,000 plus interest, Carmen did not preserve her judgment lien for this amount. Therefore, she retained no lien in the property sold at execution. It should also be noted that George's remaining debt of $273,739.40 had not matured at the time of the execution sale. (The partition order contained no acceleration clause.) Hence, the remaining debt could not have been the basis of a judgment lien in favor of Carmen at the time of execution. Furthermore, by the time the initial installments of the $273,739.40 debt became due, George, the judgment debtor, had no interest in the land previously sold at execution. Carmen could not have had a lien in property no longer owned by the judgment debtor. See I.C. § 10-1110.