§ 871.3.Action Treated As Unlimited Civil Case; Cross- Complaint Treated As Limited Civil Case; Burden

This section handles two procedural questions before getting to the merits. Subdivision (a) sets the case classification: an action seeking relief under this chapter is treated as an unlimited civil case no matter how much money is in controversy, and no matter whether a defendant cross-complains for the same kind of relief. The one exception runs the other way -- when a defendant in some other case cross-complains for good faith improver relief purely as a defensive matter, and the case otherwise meets the amount-in-controversy and other requirements of § 85, that case is treated as a limited civil case instead.

Subdivision (b) puts the burden squarely on the improver. It is the improver's job to prove entitlement to relief under this chapter -- not the landowner's job to disprove it. And the court doesn't just ask a yes-or-no question about good faith; it weighs the degree of the improver's negligence both in deciding whether the improver acted in good faith and in shaping whatever relief, if any, is consistent with substantial justice under the circumstances.

That negligence-sensitive approach threads through the rest of the chapter. Sections 871.4 and 871.5 both return to the same "substantial justice to the parties" standard when spelling out what relief a court can order.