Lewis v. Superior Court
California Court of Appeal
30 Cal. App. 4th 1850 (1994)
The Lewises (plaintiffs) contracted to buy a residence from Shipley; four days before their closing, Fontana Films (defendant) recorded a lis pendens against Shipley affecting that same residence, but the lis pendens wasn't actually indexed until the day after the Lewises' closing, when they received title. The Lewises then paid off their note and invested significantly more in improving the property, and it wasn't until over a year later that they were served with Fontana's lawsuit, learning of the lis pendens for the first time. The Lewises sought to clear title and remove the lis pendens; the trial court denied their summary judgment motion, and they appealed.
Whether a bona fide purchaser of property may be charged with constructive knowledge of an encumbrance on the land where the encumbrance was recorded, but not indexed, prior to the sale.