Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — 361896_pub.pdf

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can be presented on appeal. State v. Strine, 176 Wn.2d 742, 749, 293 P.3d 1177 (2013).

The rule serves the goal of judicial economy by enabling trial courts to correct mistakes

and thereby obviate the needless expense of appellate review and further trials, facilitates

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For the current opinion, go to https://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/wareports/.

No. 36189-6-III
Borton & Sons, Inc. v. Burbank Properties, LLC (dissent)

appellate review by ensuring that a complete record of the issues will be available, and

prevents adversarial unfairness by ensuring that the prevailing party is not deprived of

victory by claimed errors that it had no opportunity to address. State v. Strine, 176

Wn.2d at 749-50 (2013); State v. Scott, 110 Wn.2d 682, 688, 757 P.2d 492 (1988). I

conclude that both parties waived any requirement that the superior court conduct a trial

before weighing the evidence and the equities. In fairness to the trial court, this court

should not reverse its ruling on a ground never presented it except in rare circumstances.

This appellate court must next determine the standard of review of the trial court’s

decision to exercise its equitable authority, a risky determination because of the

anomalous nature of a summary judgment in a suit in equity. On appeal, Burbank

Properties, on the one hand, argues that this court should defer to the superior court’s

ruling. Generally, we employ an abuse of discretion standard of review for a trial court’s

exercise of equitable authority. Emerick v. Cardiac Study Center, Inc., 189 Wn. App.

711, 730, 357 P.3d 696 (2015); Recreational Equipment, Inc. v. World Wrapps

Northwest, Inc., 165 Wn. App. 553, 559, 266 P.3d 924 (2011). On the other hand, Borton