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Court held that, under the pertinent Utah Rules of Civil
Procedure, "a judgment is complete and is deemed entered for all
purposes when the same is signed and filed". Further, respondent
cited First Natl. Bank v. Haymond, 57 P.2d 1401, 1405 (Utah
1936), wherein the Utah Supreme Court stated that "The clerk,
must, as a mere ministerial duty, enter a deficiency judgment
against the proper parties when the return of the sale shows that
the mortgaged property is not sold for an amount sufficient to
pay the amount due and owing". (Emphasis added.) The facts that
the failure to docket the judgment was not an act that was
required of Citizens, but was required of the clerk of court;
that such an act of omission by the clerk was a ministerial
omission; that there was a return by the sheriff, a public
record, which clearly reflected a deficiency balance on the
judgment following the foreclosure sale; that both Citizens and
petitioner recognized there was an enforceable unpaid balance due
after the foreclosure sale; that subsequent payments were
credited to the unpaid deficiency; and that the remaining unpaid
balance was listed and thereafter discharged by a bankruptcy
court all lead this Court to conclude and hold that, following
the foreclosure sale, Citizens held a legally enforceable
deficiency judgment against petitioner, and that this liability
existed despite the failure of a public official to perform a
purely ministerial duty. The unpaid deficiency, therefore,
survived the foreclosure sale.
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