Opinion ID: 1345786
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: consideration of additional evidence on appeal

Text: Ziegler asserts that the Court of Appeals erred in refusing to consider additional evidence on appeal. The evidence offered consisted of medical articles published after trial, a letter from Ziegler's physician, and portions of Ziegler's medical record. [4] Under RAP 9.11(a), additional evidence may be taken by an appellate court if the following criteria are met: The appellate court may direct that additional evidence be taken before the decision of a case on review if: (1) additional proof of facts is needed to fairly resolve the issues on review, (2) the additional evidence would probably change the decision being reviewed, (3) it is equitable to excuse a party's failure to present the evidence to the trial court, (4) the remedy available to a party through postjudgment motions in the trial court is inadequate or unnecessarily expensive, (5) the appellate court remedy of granting a new trial is inadequate or unnecessarily expensive, and (6) it would be inequitable to decide the case solely on the evidence already taken in the trial court. The appellate court will accept new evidence only if all six conditions are met. Sears v. Grange Ins. Ass'n, 111 Wn.2d 636, 640, 762 P.2d 1141 (1988). The Court of Appeals, after reviewing the additional evidence, stated that although the medical articles were not available until after trial, Ziegler's medical record and his physician were available prior to trial. Ziegler made no attempt to enter that evidence at trial and did not assign error to any refusal by the trial court to accept that evidence. The Court of Appeals held that the petitioner failed to meet the requirements of RAP 9.11(a), and the court refused to consider the evidence. We agree.