Feldsher

Appellant, Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation (Lawyers Title), is the assignee of a lender whose junior lien on real property was lost when respondents, Seymour Feldsher and Carol Feldsher (the Feldshers), foreclosed upon their senior lien at a nonjudicial foreclosure sale. Lawyers Title brought suit against the Feldshers, seeking to have its assignor’s loan equitably subrogated to a lien senior to the Feldsher loan which was retired with the assignor’s loan funds.

The trial court granted the Feldshers’ motion for summary judgment, finding Lawyers Title was not entitled to equitable subrogation due to its assignor’s actual knowledge of the senior liens and his culpable and inexcusable neglect in extending the loan without ensuring the Feldshers’ had first agreed to subordinate their loan to his. We affirm.

Facts and Proceedings Below

In January 1990, Seymour Feldsher sold a business he owned called DPK Vending to Dominick Razzano and Razzano’s company, Golden State Music Company, Inc. Razzano’s obligations under the purchase and sale agreement were secured in part by a trust deed recorded in favor of the Feldshers on commercial real property owned by Razzano located…