McBeth

MEMORANDUM **

Trustee in bankruptcy Sandra McBeth appeals a Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (“BAP”) decision affirming a bankruptcy court’s order overruling McBeth’s objection to Chapter 7 debtor Kristina Karr’s claimed automatic homestead exemption in a residence in Santa Cruz, California. We affirm.

This court reviews BAP decisions de novo. In re Price, 353 F.3d 1135, 1138 (9th Cir.2004). The bankruptcy court’s factual findings are reviewed for clear error and its legal conclusions are reviewed de novo. Id. Findings of fact are not clearly erroneous unless the reviewing court has a “definite and firm conviction” that a mistake has been made. Lentini v. Cal. Ctr. for the Arts, 370 F.3d 837, 843 (9th Cir.2004) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). California’s homestead statute is intended to be liberally construed “so its citizens [do] not lose their homes through a technicality.” In re Canino, 185 B.R. 584, 590 (9th Cir. BAP 1995) (citation omitted).

California’s automatic homestead exemption applies to a debtor’s “principal dwelling” in which the debtor resided “on the date the judgment creditor’s lien attached to the dwelling” and in which the debtor “resided…