When can an appeal be successful solely on the factual findings of the trial judge?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Pascall v. Aldred, 2014 BCSC 328 (CanLII):
When an appeal is based entirely on the trial judge’s factual findings, it “can only succeed if the trial judge ignored or misunderstood critical evidence or if he made findings that are not supported by any evidence at all.” (Perfect Auto Repairs at para. 6). An appellate court cannot interfere just because it may have come to a different conclusion on the basis of the evidence. It “should not retry a case or substitute its findings or inferences for those of the trial judge’s unless it is shown that the trial judge made a manifest error, ignored conclusive or relevant evidence, misunderstood the evidence, or drew erroneous conclusions from it” (Moses v. Kim, 2009 BCCA 82, 308 D.L.R. (4th) 239 at para. 32).
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