Thomas McMahon v. Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, 131 A.3d 175

McMahon slipped and fell on property at 244 Atlantic Avenue in Warwick and sued for negligence against Deutsche Bank National Trust Co., Westcott Properties, Michelle Savastano, and others.
McMahon alleged he was a prospective buyer who visited the property with Savastano (a Westcott broker) and that Deutsche had a security interest in the property.
Westcott and Savastano moved for summary judgment on November 4, 2013; Deutsche moved separately on November 5, 2013. The Superior Court granted both motions (orders entered November 20 and November 29, 2013).
McMahon timely appealed and filed the required prebriefing statement but provided only a single paragraph broadly asserting that genuine issues of material fact existed without citing facts, record pages, or legal authority.
The Supreme Court issued a show-cause order; McMahon did not meaningfully supplement his briefing or identify the specific factual or legal grounds to overturn summary judgment. The Court treated his appellate arguments as waived and affirmed the Superior Court judgment.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether summary judgment was improper because genuine issues of material fact exist	McMahon: evidence raised genuine issues supporting his negligence claim (unspecified)	Defendants: no genuine issue of material fact; entitled to judgment as a matter of law	Court: McMahon failed to identify facts or cite record; argument waived; summary judgment affirmed
Whether appellate arguments are preserved despite minimal briefing	McMahon: broadly asserted error in single-paragraph prebriefing statement	Defendants: procedural rule requires specific factual/legal support; courts need not search the record	Court: under Rule 16(a) and related precedent, issues not argued with supporting facts/law are waived

Bowen Court Associates v. Ernst & Young, LLP, 818 A.2d 721 (R.I. 2003) (prebriefing/supplemental statements function as the brief on appeal)
Riley v. Stone, 900 A.2d 1087 (R.I. 2006) (court will not search the record to substantiate unsupported appellate assertions)
Wilkinson v. State Crime Laboratory Commission, 788 A.2d 1129 (R.I. 2002) (barely stating an issue without meaningful discussion amounts to waiver)
In re Jake G., 126 A.3d 450 (R.I. 2015) (issues unsupported by facts or law are not properly before the Court)
Horton v. Portsmouth Police Department, 22 A.3d 1115 (R.I. 2011) (one-line summaries of issues fail Rule 16 requirements)
Kurczy v. St. Joseph Veterans Association, Inc., 820 A.2d 929 (R.I. 2003) (short, undeveloped argument and lack of record citations results in waiver)