Hoffman

In this appeal we are required to decide the applicability of the protections of the antideficiency law (Code Civ. Proc., § 580a et seq.) to certain personal guaranties of a trust’s debt. These guaranties were made by a husband and wife who simultaneously held the capacities of trustors, trustees, and beneficiaries of the debtor, their own revocable living trust. The issue presented is whether such persons should be considered to be primary obligors of their trust’s debt, to whom antideficiency protections apply, as opposed to separate and distinct “true guarantors” of the trust’s debt. (See Union Bank v. Gradsky (1968) 265 Cal.App.2d 40 [ 71 Cal.Rptr. 64 ].) As a matter of law we shall conclude the nature of this trust does not support any finding of a distinction between the debt of the guarantors and the debt of the trust, when antideficiency protections are considered. Thus, no deficiency judgment is allowable under these facts.

Torrey Pines Bank (the bank), plaintiff below, has appealed the amended judgment entered by the trial court dismissing its complaint brought against defendants Jerome Hoffman and Naomi Joy Hoffman to enforce their personal guaranties of a…