No public officer or employee is liable for failure to perform a duty imposed by this article unless sufficient information is furnished by the abstract or certified copy of the judgment together with the affidavit to enable the officer or employee in the exercise of reasonable diligence to ascertain the identity of the judgment debtor therefrom and from the papers and records on file in the office in which the officer or employee works. The word "office" as used in this section does not include any branch or subordinate office located in a different city.
§ 708.790.Liability of Public Officer Or Employee For Failure to Perform Duty
Title 9. Enforcement of Judgments · Division 2 · Chapter 6. Miscellaneous Creditors' Remedies · Article 8. Collection of Judgment Where Judgment Debtor Is Creditor of Public Entity · Enacted 1982 · no amendments on record · Last verified July 28, 2026
In one sentenceSection 708.790 shields a public officer or employee from liability for failing to perform a duty under this article unless the abstract, affidavit, and the office's own files would have let a reasonably diligent officer identify the debtor, and excludes any branch or subordinate office in a different city from what counts as the officer's own office.
Full Text of § 708.790
Plain-English Summary
This section protects the individual public officers and employees who carry out this article's procedures, such as depositing money, noting filings, and serving notices, from personal liability for getting it wrong. The shield only lifts if the abstract or certified copy of the judgment, together with the affidavit, gave enough information that a reasonably diligent officer could have identified the debtor using that filing plus whatever papers and records already sat in the officer's own office.
The statute also narrows what counts as the officer's own office for this purpose: it excludes any branch or subordinate office located in a different city. An officer in one city is not expected to cross-check records held in a branch office somewhere else before acting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a public officer be held personally liable for failing to act under this article?
Only if the abstract or certified copy of the judgment, together with the affidavit, contained enough information for a reasonably diligent officer to identify the debtor from those documents and the officer's own office records.
Does office include a branch office in another city?
No. Section 708.790 excludes any branch or subordinate office located in a different city from the officer's own office for this purpose.
Amendment History
Added by Stats. 1982, Ch. 1364, Sec. 2. Operative July 1, 1983, by Sec. 3 of Ch. 1364.
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
the Deering's California Codes Annotated / vLex. Enacted by the California Legislature.
Last verified July 28, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: liability public officer judgment article californiaofficer duty judgment debtor identification