AMALGAMATED BANK v. Superior Court

Opinion

BUTZ, J.

In this case, we are confronted with the knotty question of what an appellate court should do about an order expunging a lis pendens where a real property claimant is appealing from an adverse judgment in the trial court and files a writ petition asking the Court of Appeal to stay the expungement until the appeal is decided. The issue is complicated by a drastic change in lis pendens law enacted in 1992.

The new law places the burden on the party filing a lis pendens to show the “probable validity” of his or her real property claim before trial, but says nothing about what…