Wins

HBI Construction, Inc. v. Superior Court (2011) 2011 Cal.App. Unpub. LEXIS 6745 (California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division Two) [unpublished]. GMSR’s client, HBI, had a mechanic’s lien on seven properties that were part of a single, overarching construction project. After foreclosure proceedings wiped out the lien on six of the properties, the owner of the seventh filed a motion asking the trial court to apportion the lien based on a formula that it admitted was the most favorable to it. The trial court granted the motion, adopting the proposed apportionment over HBI’s objection that it could not make such a determination without taking additional evidence. GMSR filed a writ petition on HBI’s behalf. Granting the petition, the Court of Appeal held that apportioning the lien without taking evidence was an abuse of discretion. It ordered the trial court to vacate its ruling, and to hold an evidentiary hearing to determine what portion of the lien was attributable to the property at issue.