Highest Bidder At A Trustee Sale Of Real Property, Too Good To Be True.

Plaintiff was the highest bidder at a trustee’s sale of real property, and he filed an action to quiet title. Two days after the sale, the trustee telephoned plaintiff and told him the sale was void because the trustee “did not offer the Property for a high enough bid amount.” The trustee returned plaintiff’s cashier’s check, but plaintiff sent it back to the trustee and demanded the deed. The trustee alleged as an affirmative defense:  “Prior to the auction attended by plaintiff, a proper and enforceable credit bid was submitted by the foreclosing beneficiary in the sum of $219,105, and accepted by Answering Defendant as trustee. Accordingly, . . . that was a fully effective and completed bid which was higher than the amount bid by plaintiff. As such, the actual high bid at the sale was not plaintiff‘s, but rather was the foreclosing beneficiary’s completed and accepted credit bid.” The trial court granted a motion for summary judgment in the trustee’s favor.  The California Supreme Court agreed, stating: “We granted review to decide whether a trustee may declare void a nonjudicial foreclosure sale of real property when, before the trustee delivers a deed to the highest bidder, the trustee discovers it had mistakenly communicated to the auctioneer an incorrect opening bid by the lender that was less than 10 percent of the actual amount of the bid. . . . [W]e conclude that under the circumstances here, the trustee acted within its discretionary authority in declaring the sale void.”  Biancalana v. T.D. Service Company  (Cal. Sup. Ct.; May 16, 2013) 56 Cal.4th 807, [300 P.3d 518; 156 Cal.Rptr.3d 437].