St. John Missionary Baptist Church v. Flakes

Opinion by Justice Evans

" 'The premise of our adversarial system is that appellate courts do not sit as self-directed boards of legal inquiry and research, but essentially as arbiters of legal questions presented and argued by the parties before them. ' "1

We have to decide the appropriate disposition of a case by an appellate court when an appealing party does not challenge *313all possible grounds that could support the trial court's judgment. For nearly fifty years, the proper action has been to affirm a judgment when the appealing party has failed to show reversible error. See Malooly Bros.,…