Markley

In this matter we are called upon to decide whether the trial court may, in lieu of requiring a bond or undertaking as a condition of denying a motion to expunge lis pendens, authorize the plaintiff to execute and file a deed of trust on real property, to indemnify defendant for all damages proximately resulting from the denial of expungement, should defendant ultimately prevail in this action. We conclude that such an alternative is not authorized by statute and that the trial court exceeded its powers in making such an order. Accordingly, we issue the writ as prayed.

As we determine that the question is one of statutory construction unaffected by the equities or practicalities of this particular case, no detailed recitation of the facts is necessary. In January 1990, plaintiff Allen Samuels (hereinafter Samuels) sold a large parcel of property in Adelanto to defendants Robert and Denise Markley and Charles and Betty Smith. (Hereinafter, Markley shall refer to petitioners Smith and Markley as a group; where the individual is meant, his or her full name will be used.) It is Samuels’s contention that Robert Markley and Daniel Tate had made misrepresentations to him…