Opinion ID: 2584009
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Court of Civil Appeals Decision

Text: ¶ 18 In reviewing a judgment entered through the summary process, appellate tribunals must equally bear an affirmative duty to test all evidentiary material tendered in summary process for its legal sufficiency to support the relief sought by the movant. Manley v. Brown, 1999 OK 79, 989 P.2d 448, 455-456. This review is completely confined to the content of the trial court's summary judgment record. Id. An appellate court's determination of summary relief, like the trial court's, must be premised upon the record before the court and not materials that could be assembled later. Hadnot, 826 P.2d at 982 n. 10. An appellate court cannot take notice of any document or evidentiary material which the trial court did not have in deciding the summary judgment motion. Manley v. Brown, 989 P.2d at 457. In addition, it is not the duty of the appellate court on review to make first-instance determinations of disputed law or fact issues. Bivins v. State of Oklahoma, ex rel. Oklahoma Memorial Hospital, et al., 1996 OK 5, 917 P.2d 456, 464. An appellate court cannot craft an initial decision upon an untried question and then direct that it be followed on remand. Id. (emphasis in original). ¶ 19 The Court of Civil Appeals upheld Defendants' summary judgment based upon its analysis that Plaintiffs did not support their claims of injury and failed to establish a sufficient link between exposure to methamphetamine or its components and their injuries. However, factual issues regarding the nature, cause and existence of Plaintiffs' injuries were not addressed by the motion for summary judgment or considered by the trial court below. The trial court simply did not examine whether Plaintiffs suffered injuries and whether they are the result of methamphetamine exposure. Therefore, the appellate court should not have engaged in such an examination in the first instance. ¶ 20 The Court of Civil Appeals opinion in essence affirmed the summary judgment on a theory not before the trial court. Accordingly, we must vacate the opinion. See Bivins, 917 P.2d 456.