Opinion ID: 1119403
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Although Tenala Waived Any Argument with Respect to the Costs and Attorney's Fees Awards, We Vacate These Awards Due to Our Partial Reversal of the Trial Court and Remand Them for Re-evaluation in Light of Our Holdings.

Text: Tenala asserts that the superior court erred in awarding attorney's fees and costs, but makes no supporting arguments on appeal and merely refers us to its trial court memoranda on the issue. Therefore, Tenala has effectively abandoned these issues. See Gates v. City of Tenakee Springs, 822 P.2d 455, 460 (Alaska 1991) (treating issues cursorily or not addressed in a party's appellate briefs as abandoned) (citing Lewis v. State, 469 P.2d 689, 691-92 (Alaska 1970)). This court need not consider arguments which a party on appeal merely adopts and incorporates by reference to its lower court memoranda. Bidwell v. Scheele, 355 P.2d 584, 587-88 (Alaska 1960). Nonetheless, because we have found that Fowler, as representative of her mother's estate, acquired a prescriptive easement and not fee title for most of the disputed portion of Lot 6, we vacate the attorney's fees and costs awards. On remand, the trial court will have to decide who is the prevailing party. The prevailing party determination is left to the discretion of the trial court, LeDoux v. Kodiak Island Borough, 827 P.2d 1121, 1124 (Alaska 1992), as is the award of costs. Pavone v. Pavone, 860 P.2d 1228, 1233 (Alaska 1993).