In Ransom v. Lakefront Estates Homeowners Association, No. E2023-00805-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Dec. 20, 2023) (memorandum opinion), the Tennessee Court of Appeals once again threw out an appeal because the appellant failed to state the standard of review and failed to appropriately cite to the record.
Here is an excerpt of the opinion discussing these issues:
Although the Plaintiffs specifically raise two issues in pursuit of such relief on appeal, we do not reach the merits of their issues due to their noncompliance with applicable briefing requirements imposed by the rules of appellate procedure and the rules of this Court. Whereas Rule 27 of the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure requires, among other things, that an appellant’s brief include an argument section containing a statement of the applicable standard of review for each issue as well as the reasons the trial court’s decision is incorrect, and further in part requires that the argument include “appropriate references to the record . . . relied on,” Tenn. R. App. P. 27(a)(7), Rule 6 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals of Tennessee requires that written argument in regard to each appellate issue contain, among other things, “[a] statement of each determinative fact relied upon with citation to the record where evidence of each such fact may be found,” Tenn. Ct. App. R. 6(a), and also further provides that no assertion of fact will be considered on appeal “unless the argument contains a reference to the page or pages of the record where evidence of such fact is recorded.” Tenn. Ct. App. R. 6(b). Here, aside from the fact that there is no statement of the standard of review for each issue in connection with the Plaintiffs’ offered argument, we observe that the argument section of the Plaintiffs’ brief is entirely devoid of any citations to the record in support of the assertions made therein. For instance, in support of their first raised issue as to their supposed entitlement to an easement “by implication and necessity,” the Plaintiffs present a series of statements in support of what they contend the “facts of the case at bar require” but which are all devoid of any supporting citation to the record. The same basic deficiency accompanies the Plaintiffs’ presentation of their argument on their “easement by estoppel” issue. Indeed, whereas multiple statements are made throughout the included argument, no citations are provided to the record.
This Court may properly decline to consider an issue that has not been briefed in accordance with applicable rules, Clayton v. Herron, No. M2014-01497-COA-R3-CV, 2015 WL 757240, at *3 (Tenn. Ct. App. Feb. 20, 2015), and we have previously held that a party’s “failure to comply with the Rules of Appellate Procedure and the rules of this Court waives the issues for review.” Bean v. Bean, 40 S.W.3d 52, 55 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2000). Here, given the Plaintiffs’ noncompliance with applicable briefing requirements, we conclude that they have waived any issues raised and that the appeal should be dismissed. See Thomas v. Bank of Am., N.A., No. M2015-01849-COA-R3-CV, 2017 WL 2859813, at *4 (Tenn. Ct. App. July 5, 2017) (“Based upon Thomas’s failure to comply with Tenn. R. App. P. 27 and R. Tenn. Ct. App. 6, we conclude that Thomas has waived any issues raised, and the appeal should be dismissed.”).
I have not kept track of how many times this problem has been discussed by our appellate courts in 2023, but my guess is that it exceeds two dozen cases. Usually, the appellate court refuses to consider the issues not properly briefed. When all issues planned to be raised on appeal are not properly briefed, the entire appeal will be dismissed.
Bottom line: know the rules. Follow the rules. And if you don’t have the time or inclination to do so, hire someone else to handle the appeal.