Judge: Armen Tamzarian, Case: BC483753, Date: 2023-10-03 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: BC483753    Hearing Date: October 3, 2023    Dept: 52

Plaintiff National Commercial Recovery, Inc. d/b/a Blair Smith and Associates’ Motion to Amend Judgment

Plaintiff/judgment creditor National Commercial Recovery, Inc. d/b/a Blair Smith and Associates moves to amend the judgment to add “Armando Martinez Mota as Trustee of the 2021 Armando Martinez Mota Separate Property Family Trust dated February 16, 2021” as a judgment debtor. 

Courts may amend judgments to add judgment debtors.  (Curci Investments, LLC v. Baldwin (2017) 14 Cal.App.5th 214, 220; CCP § 187.)  “ ‘[A]n unnamed party may be included as a judgment debtor if the equities overwhelmingly favor the amendment and it is necessary to prevent an injustice.’ ”  (Favila v. Pasquarella (2021) 65 Cal.App.5th 934, 942.)

Plaintiff shows that equity overwhelmingly favors amending the judgment.  On November 20, 2013, the court entered a stipulated judgment for plaintiff against defendants C M Products, LLC and Armando Martinez a/k/a Armando Mota Martinez a/k/a Armando Mota a/k/a Armando M. Cuevas.  Plaintiff successfully applied to renew the judgment on July 26, 2023.

Plaintiff submits evidence that in 2022, judgment debtor Armando Martinez transferred real property to himself as trustee of a trust he created in 2021.  (Besnyl Decl., ¶ 3, Ex. B.)  On October 5, 2022, the Los Angeles County Recorder’s Office recorded a quitclaim deed from grantor “Armando Martinez Mota (AKA Armando Martinez), a married man as his sole and separate property” to grantee “Armando Martinez Mota as Trustee of 2021 Armando Martinez Mota Separate Property Family Trust dated February 16, 2021.”  (Ibid.)  The deed states, “This conveyance transfers an interest into the grantor’s Living Trust.”  (Ibid.) 

It would not be just to permit judgment debtor to avoid enforcement of the judgment against him by creating a revocable trust and transferring real property to it.  The court therefore will amend the judgment to add Martinez, as trustee of the trust, as an additional judgment debtor.

The motion is granted.  The court will sign plaintiff’s proposed order to amend the judgment to add “Armando Martinez Mota as Trustee of the 2021 Armando Martinez Mota Separate Property Family Trust dated February 16, 2021” as a judgment debtor.