What is the standard of review of the record de novo on appeal?

"On appeal, we review the record de novo to determine whether the moving party met its burden of proof." (Lewis v. County of Sacramento (2001) 93 Cal.App.4th 107, 116.) Nonetheless, we too are not obligated "to cull the record for the benefit of the appellant in order to attempt to uncover the requisite triable issues. As with an appeal from any judgment, it is the appellant's responsibility to affirmatively demonstrate error and, therefore, to point out the triable issues the appellant claims are present by citation to the record and any supporting authority. In other words, review is limited to issues which have been adequately raised and briefed." (Ibid.)

Plaintiffs' briefing is conspicuous for its shortage of citations to evidence in the record to support its factual assertions. The appellant must "[s]upport any reference to a matter in the record by a citation to the volume and page number of the record where the matter appears." (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.204(a)(1)(C), italics added.) That relevant record citations may have been provided to support some references in Plaintiffs' briefs does not cure a failure to support other references with citations to the record. (City of Lincoln v. Barringer (2002) 102 Cal.App.4th 1211, 1239, fn. 16.) This is particularly true here where Plaintiffs' factual background provides general citations to declarations they submitted in opposition to summary judgment before summarizing the contents of those declarations. To the extent Plaintiffs may repeat some of these factual assertions again in support of their various legal arguments, the earlier citations do not fulfill "the purpose of the citation requirement, which is to enable appellate justices and staff attorneys to locate relevant portions of the record expeditiously without thumbing through and rereading earlier portions of a brief." (Ibid.) " 'The reviewing court is not required to make an independent, unassisted study of the record in search of error or grounds to support the judgment.' [Citations.] It is the duty of counsel to refer the reviewing court to the portion of the record which supports appellant's contentions on

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appeal. [Citation.] If no citation 'is furnished on a particular point, the court may treat it as waived.' " (Guthrey v. State of California (1998) 63 Cal.App.4th 1108, 1115.) With these principles in mind, we now turn to the issues before us.

B. Section 1159(1)

At the time of the trial court proceedings, section 1159 provided:

"Every person is guilty of a forcible entry who either: