Blue Diamond sold the property at a trustee's sale; but, the purchase price
was less than what Rafcon owed Blue Diamond under the loan.
After the trustee's sale, the Nevada Legislature passed
Assembly Bill 273, which placed additional restrictions on the amount a
court could award in a deficiency action where there has been a transfer of
the right to obtain a deficiency judgment. The bill was codified as NRS
40.459(1)(c). See 2011 Nev. Stat., ch. 311, § 5, at 1743.
Thereafter, Blue Diamond filed a motion for partial summary
judgment requesting the district court to determine that NRS 40.459(1)(c)
was inapplicable to the deficiency action. The district court granted the
motion. The Medinas stipulated to a deficiency judgment with Blue
Diamond, which was certified as final under NRCP 54(b), and then filed
the instant appeal challenging the district court's conclusion that NRS
40.459(1)(c) is not applicable in the underlying deficiency action.
Whether or not a statute applies in a particular instance is a
question of law that we review de novo. Sandpointe Apartments, L.L.C. v.
Eighth Judicial Dist. Court, 129 Nev. „ 313 P.3d 849, 853 (2013).
We addressed this issue in Sandpointe and determined that a
"right to a deficiency vests upon the sale pursuant to a judicial foreclosure
or trustee's sale, and thus, applying NRS 40.459(1)(c) to deficiencies
arising from sales" that occurred prior to the statute's effective date would
result in an improper retroactive effect. Id. at , 313 P.3d at 856, 859.
Here, Blue Diamond sold the property at a trustee's sale that
took place prior to NRS 40.459(1)(c)'s effective date; therefore, the district
court correctly determined that the statute is inapplicable to the
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underlying matter. Accordingly, we
ORDER the judgment of the district court AFFIRMED.
/ •s=1.1.,%--&-4-3et , J.
Hardesty
Douglas
1 J.
J.
cc: Hon. Elizabeth Goff Gonzalez, District Judge
Robert F. Saint-Aubin, Settlement Judge
The Schwartz Law Firm, Inc.
Lionel Sawyer & Collins/Las Vegas
Eighth District Court Clerk
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