In one of the more remarkable opening paragraphs to an opinion I’ve seen, the Washington Court of Appeals recently warned litigants against citing the opinion as authority:
This is a correction of error case. As such, it results in an unpublished opinion. In a correction of error case, we confine our analysis to the issues actually raised and briefed by the parties. In circumstances in which we are not confident that the parties have raised and briefed all pertinent issues, resolution by an unpublished opinion is warranted. This is one such case. Trial courts should exercise great care if asked to apply the result reached herein to any other dispute.
The case involved a class action lawsuit against a company that sold digital tokens to be used on their website. The purchasers of the digital tokens sued alleging the company violated federal securities law. The trial court denied the company’s motion to compel arbitration.
This appeal arose out of the trial court’s denial of the motion to compel arbitration, even though the case was not yet final. A denial of a motion to compel arbitration is a recognized exception to the rule that all cases must be final before they may be appealed as a matter of right. See Stein v. Geonarco, 105 Wn. App. 41, 44, 17 P.3d 1266 (2001).
The court’s opening paragraph is highly unusual and expresses its misgivings with the way the case had been developed up until that point. I don’t recall seeing anything quite like this before. So be warned: when a court tells you what not to do, it’s usually best to follow its instructions.