Bradbury

Appeal by a title insurance company from a judgment in an action for declaratory relief decreeing that a lien exists on a parcel of real property, the clear title to which the company had insured. We reverse.

In an attempt to effectuate enforcement of child and spousal support obligations, the Legislature enacted Code of Civil Procedure section 674.5, which provides in pertinent part: “A certified copy of any judgment or order of the superior court of this state for spousal or child support, when recorded with the recorder of any county, shall from such recording become a lien upon all real property of the judgment debtor, not exempt from execution, in such county, owned by him at the time, or which he may afterwards and before the lien expires, acquire, for the respective amounts and installments as they mature (but shall not become a lien for any sum or sums prior to the date they severally become due and payable) which lien shall have, to the extent herein provided and for the period of 10 years from such recording, the same force, effect and priority as the lien created by recordation of an abstract of a money judgment pursuant to Section 674.”

*44 The spirit and…

The most important interest to be considered and protected here is the right of a child to be supported by its parent. Accompanying that interest is the interest of society in enforcing the parent’s obligation by resorting to the parent’s property when the parent fails to support his child. In the recent words of Justice Powell’s dissent, “Familial obligations are not merely commercial. Few legal duties are more universally acknowledged than the duty of a father to support his children.” (Ridg way v. Ridgway (1981) 454 U.S. 46, 68 [ 70 L.Ed.2d 39 , 102 S.Ct. 49, 61 ].) Indeed, the willful failure of a parent to support his child is a crime. (Pen. Code, § 270; In re King (1970) 3 Cal.3d 226 [ 90 Cal.Rptr. 15 , 474 P.2d 983 ].)

The procedure under which appellant claims operates to defeat and conflicts with the law’s policy of aiding enforcement of a parent’s child support obligation. That policy in my view far surpasses any commercial policy regarding free alienation of property or the clearing of land titles.

One part of the statute here involved (Code Civ. Proc., § 674.5) seeks to secure the payment of child support through the creation of a lien on the father’s realty. The…

Appeal by a title insurance company from a judgment in an action for declaratory relief decreeing that a lien exists on a parcel of real property, the clear title to which the company had insured. We reverse.

In an attempt to effectuate enforcement of child and spousal support obligations, the Legislature enacted Code of Civil Procedure section 674.5, which provides in pertinent part: "A certified copy of any judgment or order of the superior court of this state for spousal or child support, when recorded with the recorder of any county, shall from such recording become a lien upon all real property of the judgment debtor, not exempt from execution, in such county, owned by him at the time, or which he may afterwards and before the lien expires, acquire, for the respective amounts and installments as they mature (but shall not become a lien for any sum or sums prior to the date they severally become due and payable) which lien shall have, to the extent herein provided and for the period of 10 years from such recording, the same force, effect and priority as the lien created by recordation of an abstract of a money judgment pursuant to Section 674."

(1) The…