Nist v. Hall (2018)
Court: Second District, Division Six · Decided: May 31, 2018 · Opinion: Yegan, J. · Publication: certified for publication.
Facts
After a storage occupant stopped paying rent, the operator conducted a USD 400 contents sale. The occupant settled his statutory-violation action against the operator for USD 12,000, then sued the purchaser for conversion. The trial court found the purchaser acted in good faith.
Holding
Affirmed. Bus. & Prof. Code § 21711 protected the good-faith buyer against the occupant’s conversion claim despite the operator’s noncompliance, including the alleged absence of a written agreement and attachment/notice defects. Section 21712 regulates the operator/occupant relationship without defeating § 21711’s buyer protection (slip op., pp. 3–10).
Judicial estoppel independently barred the occupant from first invoking the Act to settle with the operator and later denying its application to defeat the purchaser’s defense (pp. 10–11).
Limits
The statutory protection covers rights of persons against whom the lien was claimed; it is not an adjudication extinguishing an unrelated perfected lender’s security interest. Good faith was a factual finding, not an automatic consequence of winning an auction. The court distinguished warehouse liens, which have a different statutory protection keyed to persons against whom the lien was valid (pp. 6–8). The decision does not eliminate operator liability. For registrable vehicles/vessels, current Bus. & Prof. Code § 21702.5 expressly substitutes the vehicle/vessel procedures for §§ 21705–21711 and gives title-recorded liens priority over the self-storage lien; do not extend this ordinary-contents holding to that excluded procedure.
Source scope
The complete 12-page published slip opinion was retrieved at the frontmatter URL on 2026-10-17. Justia is an unofficial host of the primary opinion; its editorial summary is not the evidence. The full text was cross-read at FindLaw’s reproduction. Current §§ 21708 and 21711–21712 were independently retrieved from the Legislature’s official bulk export. No comprehensive citator certification is claimed. Review record: schema/verification/california-independent-review-2026-10-17.md.
Applies in →
california · towing-storage-and-mechanics-lien-sales · equipment-and-machinery
Legal information, not legal advice. Verify current authority and consult a licensed California attorney before acting.