When will the Court of Appeal review a trial court's decision that can be interpreted in more than one way?

When an appellate court is reviewing a trial court's decision that can be interpreted in more than one way, the appellate court's choice from among those interpretations is guided by the legal principles of appellate procedure. The most basic rule of appellate procedure is that the trial court's decision is presumed to be correct and the appellant has the burden of affirmatively demonstrating error. (Denham v. Superior Court (1970) 2 Cal.3d 557, 564.) Stated another way, the presumption of correctness means appellate courts indulge all intendments and presumptions in support of the trial court's order. (Ibid.) Under the presumption of correctness, if one interpretation of the trial court's decision contains no reversible error and the others contain error, the

Page 16