Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — D2 49631-3-II Published Order.pdf

Citation: Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — D2 49631-3-II Published Order.pdf
Jurisdiction: Washington (state)
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Original Source: https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/D2%2049631-3-II%20Published%20Order.pdf ↗

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fact on whether the basis for this claim rested on protected speech, he failed to present evidence

for a prima facie § 1983 claim.

Therefore, we conclude that the trial court did not err by granting summary judgment on

the § 1983 claim. Billings failed to establish the elements of the claim.

We conclude that collateral estoppel barred Billings’s state law claims, and the trial court

did not err by granting the motion for summary judgment dismissal of the lawsuit.

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49631-3-II

II. MOTION TO STRIKE CARPENTER DECLARATION

Billings assigned error to the trial court’s granting Steilacoom, Schaub, and Loveless’s

motion to strike Carpenter’s declaration.

As previously stated, RAP 10.3(a)(6) directs each party to supply, in its brief, “argument

in support of the issues presented for review, together with citations to legal authority and

references to relevant parts of the record.” Billings failed to cite to authority or provide substantive

argument as to why the trial court erred by striking Carpenter’s declaration. However, we choose

to address the issue.

We review the trial court’s ruling on a motion to strike for an abuse of discretion. Hanson

Indus. Inc. v. Kutschkau, 158 Wn. App. 278, 287, 239 P.3d 367 (2010). A court cannot consider

inadmissible evidence when ruling on a summary judgment motion. Kenco Enters. Nw., LLC v.

Wiese, 172 Wn. App. 607, 615, 291 P.3d 261 (2013).

ER 401 defines relevant evidence as “evidence having any tendency to make the existence

of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable

than it would be without the evidence.”