What happens when an appeal is taken?

When an appeal is taken, an appellate court acquires jurisdiction to review the case. Section 8, Rule 51 provides:

SEC. 8 Questions that may be decided. No error which does not affect the jurisdiction over the subject matter or the validity of the judgment appealed from or the proceedings therein will be considered, unless stated in the assignment of errors, or closely related to or dependent on an assigned error and properly argued in the brief, save as the court may pass upon plain errors and clerical errors.

As a general rule, the Court of Appeals cannot consider errors on appeal unless stated in the assignment of errors in the appellant's brief. As an exception, however, even if a question is not raised in the assignment of errors, the same may still be adjudicated by the appellate court if the unraised issue or question is closely related or dependent to an assigned error. (Aklan College, Inc. v. Enero, 597 Phil. 60, 74 [2009])