Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Presumably you signed the deed of trust which was recorded. My guess is that you borrowed on a line of credit with a maximum draw of $100,000, but only drew down $90,000. If so, what the deed of trust shows is accurate. I would review the loan documents, including your note and the deed of trust very carefully before you consider a suit of this nature.

If you continue to feel they have done something wrong, consult counsel.

The thrust of an action for slander of title is injury or impairment of the marketability of title held by the plaintiff, and the injury must be the result of some improper act by defendant. As Mr. Christian's analysis points out, you may have triggered or authorized the $100K lien by requesting a total line of $100K, or possibly the bank's documentation (which you may have signed off on) has $10K of "slack" to cover possible costs such as closing costs, accruals of interest, or something of that sort. Hence, I'd be rather cautious about going on the attack with an expensive and tough-to-prove (???) lawsuit asking for only $10K or so in damages. My recommendation is to meet with the lending bank's officers (after carefully reviewing your loan documentation) and ask for an explanation, and if appropriate, for the bank to prepare and record a corrected deed of trust. However, I strongly suspect there is a misunderstanding here that can be corrected by review of documents and a civilized meeting to discuss what happened and why.