5203 - Priorities and liens upon real property.
§ 5203. Priorities and liens upon real property. (a) Priority and lien on docketing judgment. No transfer of an interest of the judgment debtor in real property, against which property a money judgment may be enforced, is effective against the judgment creditor either from the time of the docketing of the judgment with the clerk of the county in which the property is located until ten years after filing of the judgment-roll, or from the time of the filing with such clerk of a notice of levy pursuant to an execution until the execution is returned, except: 1. a transfer or the payment of the proceeds of a judicial sale, which shall include an execution sale, in satisfaction either of a judgment previously so docketed or of a judgment where a notice of levy pursuant to an execution thereon was previously so filed; or 2. a transfer in satisfaction of a mortgage given to secure the payment of the purchase price of the judgment debtor's interest in the property; or 3. a transfer to a purchaser for value at a judicial sale, which shall include an execution sale; or 4. when the judgment was entered after the death of the judgment debtor; or 5. when the judgment debtor is the state, an officer, department, board or commission of the state, or a municipal corporation; or 6. when the judgment debtor is the personal representative of a decedent and the judgment was awarded in an action against him in his representative capacity. (b) Extension of lien. Upon motion of the judgment creditor, upon notice to the judgment debtor, served personally or by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, to the last known address of the judgment debtor, the court may order that the lien of a money judgment upon real property be effective after the expiration of ten years from the filing of the judgment-roll, for a period no longer than the time during which the judgment creditor was stayed from enforcing the judgment, or the time necessary to complete advertisement and sale of real property in accordance with section 5236, pursuant to an execution delivered to a sheriff prior to the expiration of ten years from the filing of the judgment-roll. The order shall be effective from the time it is filed with the clerk of the county in which the property is located and an appropriate entry is made upon the docket of the judgment. (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, where a court makes an oral or written determination on the record awarding ownership of an interest in real property, and a judgment effectuating such determination is docketed with the clerk of the county in which such property is located not later than thirty days thereafter, such judgement shall be deemed entered and docketed on the day immediately preceding the date of such determination solely for purposes of establishing the priority thereof against a judicial lien on such property created upon the simultaneous or later filing of a petition in bankruptcy pursuant to the United States bankruptcy code, as amended.