Byers

Defendants appeal from the judgments finding them guilty of violating several provisions of the Subdivided Lands Act (Bus. & Prof. Code, §§ 11010, 11018.1, 11022, 11023). Defendants were found to have violated the act by: (I) failing to file with the Commissioner of Real Estate a notice of intention to subdivide and sell subdivided parcels of land; (2) offering the parcels for sale without providing purchasers with a public report; and (3) engaging in false and misleading advertising concerning the land offered for sale.

Defendants, Herbert Glen Byers, Janice Higgins, and Ronald Dee Edmundson, assisted Herbert’s father, Warren Byers, in the sale of parcels of land in Butte County near the Oroville airport and the Thermalito Afterbay.

Warren Byers purchased approximately 456 acres of land from the Crocker Land Company in March 1975. When the Crocker Land Company acquired the land in 1887, a map was recorded which referred to the land as a subdivision; however, the land was not in fact divided into smaller parcels; it was merely a paper division.

After purchasing the land, Warren Byers subdivided the parcel through “four by fouring” it.

Portions of the land were…