In this published case, the Court not only shoots down an appeal from a summary judgment motion, but first takes the lawyer to task for poor briefing, both in the trial court and on appeal:
We set out the undisputed material facts as ascertained from the parties' moving and opposing papers (see Guz v. Bechtel National, Inc. (2000) 24 Cal.4th 317, 327) and state other facts and draw inferences from them in the light most favorable to plaintiffs. (Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (c); Aguilar v. Atlantic Richfield Co. (2001) 25 Cal.4th 826, 843 (Aguilar).) Having said this, we are compelled to note the difficulty we have had identifying the evidence supporting plaintiffs' claimed disputes as to defendants' enumerated material facts pertaining to the section 47(b) privilege. Plaintiffs' opposing separate statements largely contain argumentative assertions in response to each listed fact, unsupported by the cited evidence.
To further complicate review, plaintiffs make numerous factual assertions in their briefs without record citation. Accordingly, our review of the facts is also hindered by their failure to provide citations to the record that comply with California Rules of Court, rule 8.204(a)(1)(C). We are entitled to disregard such unsupported factual assertions even on de novo review of a summary judgment. (See Mueller v. County of Los Angeles (2009) 176 Cal.App.4th 809, 816, fn. 5 ["The claimed existence of facts that are not supported by citations to pages in the appellate record, or not appropriately supported by citations, cannot be considered by this court."]; Stockinger v. Feather River Community College (2003) 111 Cal.App.4th 1014, 1025.)