A lien is created:
1. By contract of the parties; or,
2. By operation of law.
Cal. Civ. Code § 2881
Creation of Liens
Applied in 15 court decisions — leading case 30 Cal. 3d 528 - Cetenko v. United California Bank (1982)
Most recently applied in Kahan v. City of Richmond (May 2019)
Enacted 1872.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.