Opinion ID: 1244467
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: findings as verities on appeals

Text: [1] The City challenged the trial court's findings of fact. It assigned error to 21 of the findings entered and to the trial court's failure to enter a number of findings the City had submitted but which the trial court rejected. However, in its opening brief the City mentioned only two of the findings to which it had assigned error. Such discussion is inadequate for all except the two mentioned findings. A party abandons assignments of error to findings of fact if it fails to argue them in its brief. Seattle Sch. Dist. 1 v. State, 90 Wn.2d 476, 585 P.2d 71 (1978); Lassila v. Wenatchee, 89 Wn.2d 804, 809-10, 576 P.2d 54 (1978); State v. Wood, 89 Wn.2d 97, 569 P.2d 1148 (1977); Dickson v. United States Fid. & Guar. Co., 77 Wn.2d 785, 787, 466 P.2d 515 (1970). The two remaining findings will not be disturbed if supported by substantial evidence. Thorndike v. Hesperian Orchards, 54 Wn.2d 570, 343 P.2d 183 (1959). We find ample evidence on which to premise the two challenged findings and we note that in two findings which we have not recounted, the trial court found that the testimony of the City's witnesses lacked credibility. We have set forth in the appendix the trial court's findings as our recital of the factual situation to accentuate them, to stress the protracted nature of the dealings between the parties and to underscore the establishment of the findings as verities on appeal.