D'Orsay International Partners v. Superior Court

Defendant and petitioner D’Orsay International Partners (D’Orsay) seeks a writ of mandate directing respondent superior court to enter an order releasing a mechanic’s lien filed by plaintiff and real party in interest Jeffrey C. Stone doing business as Summit Builders (Summit) without requiring D’Orsay to post a release bond in lieu of the mechanic’s lien.

The trial court granted D’Orsay’s motion for release of the mechanic’s lien but conditioned the order upon the posting of a statutory bond in the amount of $1.27 million, one and a half times the amount of the lien. We conclude the trial court’s ruling was error and that it should have released the lien outright. For a mechanic’s lien to attach, there must be “actual visible work on the land or the delivery of construction materials thereto.” (Walker v. Lytton Sav. & Loan Assn. (1970) 2 Cal.3d 152, 157 [ 84 Cal.Rptr. 521 ] (hereafter, Walker).) Here, that precondition to the filing of a mechanic’s lien was not met. Therefore, we grant D’Orsay’s petition.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

D’Orsay is the successor to Long Beach Plaza Associates (LBPA), a California general partnership, and the record titleholder to…