Court Opinion

ID: 9758712
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:41:01.213689+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:54.220127
License: Public Domain

VOIGT, Justice,
specially concurring.
[g388] I concur in the result reached by the majority, but I write separately because, although I agree with the majority's treatment of the district court's granting of the Association's motion to withdraw the admission, I have a concern with something not even mentioned in the opinion. W.R.A.P. 3.05(b) reads as follows:
(b) Appellant shall, contemporaneously with the filing of its brief in the appellate court and service of that brief upon appel-lee, serve on appellee, file with the clerk of the trial court a designation for transmission to the appellate court of all parts of the record, without unnecessary duplication, to which appellant intends to direct the particular attention of the appellate court in its brief.
In particular as to transcripts, W.R.AP. 3.02(b) provides in relevant part as follows:
(b) In all cases other than criminal and juvenile matters, if the proceedings in the trial court were stenographically reported by an official court reporter, appellant shall, contemporaneously with the filing of the notice of appeal, file and serve on appellee a description of the parts of the transeript which appellant intends to include in the record and unless the entire transcript is to be included, a statement of the issues appellant intends to present on appeal. If an appellant intends to assert on appeal that a finding or conclusion is unsupported by the evidence or contrary to the evidence, appellant shall include in the record a transcript of all evidence relevant to such finding or conclusion.... At the time of ordering, a party must make arrangements satisfactory to the reporter for payment of the cost of the transcript.
appellants what happens when an appropriate record is not made available to this Court: [s39] We have had occasion to inform
We begin our discussion of these issues by noting that the appellant has provided neither a transcript of the trial testimony pursuant to W.R.A.P. 8.02 nor a statement of the evidence pursuant to W.R.A.P. 3.03. There also does not appear to have been a request for special findings of fact and conclusions of law under W.R.C.P. 52(a). It is the appellant's burden to bring a complete record to this Court. Erhart v. Evans, 2001 WY 79, ¶ 18, 30 P.3d 542, 547 (Wyo.2001); Wood v. Wood, 865 P.2d 616, 617 (Wyo.1993). 'Where a proper record is not provided, an appeal may be dismissed or review may be limited to those issues not requiring inspection of the record. Stadtfeld v. Stadifeld, 920 P.2d 662, 664 (Wyo.1996) (quoting Matter of Manning's Estate, 646 P.2d 175, 176 (Wyo.1982)); Wood, 865 P.2d at 618.5
Without a sufficient record, we must
"accept the 'trial court's findings as being the only basis for deciding the issues which pertain to the evidence.' Willowbrook Ranch, Inc. v. Nugget Exploration, Inc., 896 P.2d 769, 771 (Wyo.1995). 'In the absence of anything to refute them, we will sustain the trial court's findings, and we assume that the evidence presented was sufficient to support those findings.' 896 P.2d at 771-72."
Williams v. Dietz, 999 P.2d 642, 645 (Wyo.2000) (quoting Weiss v. Pedersen, 933 P.2d 495, 498 (Wyo.1997), abrogated on other grounds by White v. Allen, 2003 WY 39, 65 *281P.3d 395 (Wyo.2003)). Furthermore, pro se litigants are held to the same standards as those represented by counsel. Dewey v. Dewey, 2001 WY 107, ¶ 17, 33 P.3d 1143, 1147 (Wyo.2001); In Interest of KMM, 957 P.2d 296, 298 (Wyo.1998).
Smith v. Smith, 2003 WY 87, ¶ 11, 72 P.3d 1158, 1161 (Wyo.2003). We said much the same thing a bit more recently in Johnson v. Sikorski, 2004 WY 137, ¶ 16, 100 P.3d 420, 424 (Wyo.2004):
Pursuant to W.R.A.P. 8.05(b), Mr. Befu-mo was required to file a designation "of all parts of the record ... to which appellant intends to direct the particular attention of the appellate court in its brief." Although Mr. Befumo quotes portions of the trial transeript in his appellate brief, he did not designate the transcript as part of the record on appeal. As the appellant, Mr. Befumo had the burden of providing this Court with a complete record on which to base a decision. Orcutt v. Shober Inv., Inc., 2003 WY 60, ¶ 9, 69 P.3d 386, ¶ 9 (Wyo.2003). Having no other means to review the district court's decision, we must assume the decision was in accord with the law. Id.
(Footnote omitted.)
[T40] In the instant case, the appellants lamented in their Notice of Appeal that they could not afford to pay for a copy of the entire transcript, but noted that they had sent funds to the official court reporter to obtain a copy of the trial testimony of a particular witness. While these statements, coupled with the listing of particular orders and judgments being appealed, might be considered minimal compliance with W.R.A.P. 3.02(b), the appellants clearly violated that rule and W.R.AP. 3.05(b) when, in filing their Designation of Records for Transmittal on Appeal, they included no portion of the trial transcript. That bears repeating more simply: there is no transcript of the trial evidence in the record.6
[T41] This case cannot be distinguished from the cases wherein we have required appellants to comply with the Rules of Appellate Procedure. Without a trial transcript, there is nothing before us from which we can ascertain that a factual finding of the district court is or is not clearly erroneous. I would summarily affirm for that reason.

. 10.06. Time for filing costs and fees.
Any motions for costs or fees shall be filed with the court within 15 days after the final written opinion or order is filed.

. This Court obtained a copy of the transcript directly from the Clerk of District Court. While, on a rare occasion, extreme circumstances may dictate that we obtain something omitted from the record, there is nothing that has been shown about this case that indicates a compelling reason to take that extreme measure.