Baca

A residential tenant defaults. The landlord obtains an unlawful detainer judgment and a writ of possession of real property. Before the sheriff executes the writ, the tenant files a bankruptcy petition. The question in this case is whether the landlord is required to apply to the bankruptcy court for relief from the automatic stay ( 11 U.S.C. § 362 (a)) or whether the pre-bankruptcy judgment has extinguished whatever legal or equitable interest the debtor might have had in the real property — in which event the landlord is not required to seek relief from the bankruptcy court and is, instead, entitled to demand that the sheriff execute the writ of possession forthwith. We hold that the unlawful detainer judgment extinguishes the residential tenant’s interest in the property and that a postjudgment bankruptcy filing does not affect the landlord’s right to regain possession of his property — because it is not, at that point, property of the tenant/debtor’s estate.

Facts

When Carlos Navarro and Alma Rodriguez failed to pay the rent due for the apartment they had rented from Ben Lee, Lee served the required notice to pay rent or quit, waited the required time to no avail,…