Opinion ID: 1934233
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: Whether we have jurisdiction to hear this appeal depends on which order is the final order in the case. The confusion arises because the district court, in an order filed August 13, 1998, declared that the order dated July 29, 1998, was the final order. Pursuant to § 25-1912, a party has 30 days in which to appeal from a final order. Thus, if the order filed July 29 was the final order, then the appeal was filed out of time. The Attorney General contends that it would be improper to allow the district court to retroactively establish a prior order as the final order because such action can have the effect of depriving a party of the full 30 days in which to file an appeal. The Attorney General further argues that if such a retroactive application is allowed, the time to appeal could effectively be eliminated in some cases by the action of the district court. A judgment is a court's final consideration and determination of the respective rights and obligations of the parties to an action as those rights and obligations presently exist. Lemburg v. Adams County, 225 Neb. 289, 404 N.W.2d 429 (1987); Neb.Rev.Stat. § 25-1301 (Reissue 1995). Orders which specify that a trial court will exercise its jurisdiction based upon future action or inaction by a party are conditional and therefore not appealable. Deuth v. Ratigan, 256 Neb. 419, 590 N.W.2d 366 (1999). [A] conditional judgment is wholly void because it does not `perform in praesenti' and leaves to speculation and conjecture what its final effect may be. [Citation omitted.] ... [F]inal judgments must not be conditional, and unless there is an equitable phase of the action wherein it is necessary to protect the interests of defendants, a conditional judgment is wholly void. Schaad v. Simms, 240 Neb. 758, 759, 484 N.W.2d 474, 475 (1992), quoting Lemburg v. Adams County, supra . In this case, despite the fact that the district court utilized its August 13, 1998, order to label the July 29 order as the final order in the case, the July 29 order was not final. At the time the July 29 order was made, it was conditional upon the future action or inaction of the parties. Thus, the order failed to operate in the present and would not have been a final, appealable order. The order filed August 13 is the final order in the case, as it was this order which had the effect of dismissing the action. We read the reference to the July 29 order as incorporating the reasoning of that order into the final order of August 13. Accordingly, the Attorney General timely filed this appeal, giving us jurisdiction over the case.