Oropallo

This case involves a wife given a promissory note secured by second deeds of trust on several pieces of real property as part of a marital dissolution. We are called on to decide whether her attempt to collect the debt from her husband is subject to the antideficiency statutes. The court below ruled in her favor because a senior lienholder had foreclosed on one or two of the six properties securing the debt. We hold that the wife’s decision to proceed by way of nonjudicial trustee’s sale on the remaining properties precluded her later attempt to seek a deficiency judgment on the note through the family law court, and reverse.

*1000 Factual and Procedural Background

On September 1, 1993, a judgment was entered dissolving the marriage of Charlotte and Anthony Oropallo. Anthony 1 was awarded the couple’s real estate and their interest in a company called American Brass and Aluminum Foundry, Inc. 2 He was obligated to provide monthly spousal support, and to make an equalizing payment of $375,000 to Charlotte, payable on the following schedule: $50,000 on or before October 1, 1993, $50,000 on or before October 1, 1994, and the balance on or before October 1, 1997. In…