This is an appeal by defendants from a judgment by the court sitting without a jury for a deficiency after a sale under a trust deed covering defendants’ real property.

The note and trust deed which were the basis of plaintiff's action for a deficiency were executed by defendants on August 20, 1935. The note was payable one year after date. Defendants having failed to pay the note, plaintiff recorded notice of default and election to sell on January 6, 1938. Thereafter, on May 4, 1938, the property was sold under the power of sale in the trust deed for a sum less than the amount of the note. Although defendants in their answer denied certain allegations in plaintiff’s complaint, the truth thereof was stipulated at the trial. Defendants pleaded in defense to plaintiff’s action that the trust deed was a purchase money trust deed and that therefore no action for a deficiency would lie by reason of section 580b of the Code of Civil Procedure. On motion of plaintiff made prior to trial the court struck that defense from defendants’ answer. Nevertheless at the trial, over plaintiff’s objection, the trial court permitted evidence to be adduced on the question of whether or not the instrument was a purchase money trust deed, remarking in so doing:

The first issue presented by this appeal is, assuming the trust deed was a purchase money trust deed, was the plaintiff entitled to a deficiency judgment under section 580b of the Code of Civil Procedure, added in 1933, prior to the execution of the trust deed here involved, which read:

There is a further answer to plaintiff’s contention even if it be assumed that the duration of section 580b was limited by the 1933 act. It is to be remembered that the trust deed was executed after the 1933 act and was due prior to September 1, 1936, the time limit expressed. That statute became a part of the trust deed contract when executed and therefore plaintiff was bound by its provision that no deficiency judgment could be obtained. (Hales v. Snowden, 19 Cal. App. (2d) 366 [ 65 Pac. (2d) 847 ].) The District Court of Appeal also considered that proposition in the case of Kirkpatrick v. Stelling, supra, and stated at page 674:

It is true as asserted by plaintiff that if there is no ambiguity, uncertainty or doubt about the meaning of a statute and the words unequivocally express a certain definite thought, there is no room for interpretation or construction by the courts. (23 Cal. Jur. 721.) However, as we have seen there exists an uncertainty here because of the position in the act of the sentence in question, and the other reasons above-mentioned. Furthermore, it is reasonable to conclude that the words “this act” mean the part of the act adding section 2924% of the Civil Code. The choice of the words “this act and the provisions of this section” may have been used out of an abundance of caution to avoid any confusion that might arise from any fancied or real distinction between the act itself as distinguished from the section which was added and made a part of the Civil Code by said act.

There is no substantial dispute as to the facts bearing upon the issue of whether or not the trust deed here in question is a purchase money trust deed within the meaning of section 580b of the Code of Civil Procedure. Mrs. Gleason acquired the property from Mr. Soler and at the time of the acquisition she discharged an encumbrance against the property by obtaining a loan from plaintiff secured by a trust deed on the property. After holding the property for some time, and being in default under the trust deed an arrangement was made whereby she conveyed the property to plaintiff in return for which plaintiff released her from liability under said trust deed and the note secured thereby. As a part of the same transaction plaintiff conveyed the property to defendants, and the latter gave plaintiff their note and trust deed on the property (the trust deed here involved) in the sum of about $12,200, the same being the amount due under the note and trust deed theretofore held by plaintiff against Gleason, and also defendants gave to Gleason a lease on the property and a note for $2,651.08 secured by a second trust deed on the property. It was agreed that the last-mentioned trust deed would be subordinated to the one here involved. In the lease from defendants to Gleason it is recited that defendants are the owners of the property and were giving the lease in return for a conveyance of the property by Gleason to defendants. That recital is of course squarely contrary to the indisputable facts inasmuch as Gleason did not convey the property to defendants, but instead conveyed it to plaintiff who conveyed it to defendants. The lease had been prepared under a prior arrangement, which was never consummated, by which Gleason was to convey to defendants who were to assume Gleason’s indebtedness owed to plaintiff. Even if it be accepted that Gleason and not plaintiff was the vendor of the property, the fact remains that the trust deed and note were not merely a renewal or continuation of the note and trust deed owed by Gleason because the latter was released and eliminated when Gleason conveyed to plaintiff and the plaintiff released Gleason from liability thereunder. Plaintiff released one debtor (Gleason) and acquired another (defendants). Although no money was in fact advanced by plaintiff to defendants under the note and trust deed, plaintiff did accept defendants as its debtors and extended credit to them in return for which it was made possible for defendants to purchase the property. The sum represented by the note and trust deed was a necessary part of the purchase price. Gleason being in default under her trust deed, it was necessary for her to require defendants to make some arrangement by which the trust deed could be discharged. If a person purchases encumbered property and assumes the encumbrance, the amount of the indebtedness is certainly a part of the pur chase price. Here there is more than a mere assumption of the encumbrance which would probably be a mere continuation of the loan. The plaintiff as record owner of the property, conveyed title thereof to defendants and received from defendants the note and trust deed here involved as the full purchase price of the property. These facts make it clear that the note and trust deed constituted the purchase price paid by defendants which brings the ease clearly within the provisions of section 580b of the Code of Civil Procedure. This is all we are called upon to decide in this case.

The record in the case at bar discloses that notwithstanding the order of the trial court striking from defendant’s answer the defense that the note and trust deed here involved were executed to cover partial payment of the purchase price of real property and therefore no action for a deficiency judgment would lie by reason of the provisions of Section 580b of the Code of Civil Procedure, the court nevertheless permitted the parties to introduce evidence disclosing the entire transaction between the parties, and there seems to be no dispute as to the facts in connection with said transaction. In view of the conclusion which we have reached in the foregoing opinion, it is obvious that the trial court should have made a finding to the effect that the trust deed constituted a purchase money trust deed, and determined as a conclusion of law that defendants were not liable for any deficiency arising as the result of the sale of the property covered by the trust deed.

Prom what we have heretofore said, it is clear that no useful purpose can be served by a retrial of this case, and it is therefore ordered that the judgment be and the same is hereby reversed with directions to the trial court to make findings and enter judgment in favor of the defendants in accordance with the views herein expressed.

Traynor, J., Edmonds, J., Shenk, J., Spence, J., pro tem., and Gibson, C. J., concurred.