CALIFORNIA FEDERAL SAVINGS LOAN ASS v. ALLEN (1941)

From a judgment denying a writ of mandate to compel defendant to deliver a commissioner's deed at the expiration of three months after a foreclosure sale of real property pursuant to the provisions of section 725a of the Code of Civil Procedure, plaintiff appeals.

These are the undisputed facts:

June 6, 1939, the Thrifty Furniture Company executed a promissory note secured by a deed of trust on real property in favor of plaintiff. November 20, 1939, plaintiff commenced an action to foreclose the above mentioned deed of trust, and on December 26, 1939, the court entered its decree of foreclosure and appointed defendant commissioner to sell the property covered by the deed of trust. This sale took place January 30, 1940, and plaintiff became the purchaser of the property. When the note and deed of trust were executed, section 725a of the Code of Civil Procedure allowed the trustor a period of one year subsequent to the date of the sale under a foreclosure proceeding within which to redeem the property mentioned in the trust deed. September 19, 1939, an amendment to section 725a of the Code of Civil Procedure became effective which provided that the trustor's period of redemption was shortened from one year to three months.

This is the sole question presented for our determination:

Does the amendment to section 725a of the Code of Civil Procedure, which became effective September 19, 1939, shortening the trustor's period of redemption after a foreclosure sale of property covered by a trust deed from one year to three months apply to deeds of trust executed prior to the effective date of such amendment?

This question must be answered in the negative. It is the established law that a statute which alters substantive rights of a party to a contract will not be applied retroactively, since to do so would violate section 10 of Article I of the Constitution of the United States and section 16, Article I of the Constitution of the State of California (Brown v. Ferdon, 5 Cal.2d 226, 231, 54 P.2d 712; 16 Cor.Jur.Sec. (1939), Constitutional Law, p. 861, § 417).

In the instant case there can be no doubt that if the amendment to section 725a of the Code of Civil Procedure, effective September 19, 1939, is applied to trust deeds executed prior to such date a substantive right of the trustor is affected. Clearly the right to redeem property within a year is a valuable substantive right which is lessened when the period of redemption is reduced to three months.

For the foregoing reasons the judgment is affirmed.

McCOMB, Justice.

We concur: MOORE, P. J.; WOOD, J.