Opinion ID: 1896787
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The District Court Properly Considered the State's Motion for Reconsideration as a Motion to Alter or Amend the Judgment.

Text: As an initial matter, we must address Gibilisco's assignment of error challenging the validity of the State's motion for reconsideration of the district court's June 6, 2007, order. We understand Gibilisco's challenge to the State's motion for reconsideration to be that the motion for reconsideration was not the proper method for challenging the court's June 6 order. We find this assignment of error to be without merit. The State directs us to State v. Bao, 269 Neb. 127, 690 N.W.2d 618 (2005). In Bao, we concluded that a motion for reconsideration should be treated as a motion to alter or amend a judgment when such motion meets the criteria for a motion to alter or amend the judgment, to wit, being filed not later than 10 days after the entry of judgment, see Neb.Rev. Stat. § 25-1329 (Reissue 2008), and seeking substantive alteration of the judgment. The State argues that as in State v. Bao , its motion for reconsideration was functionally a motion to alter or amend a judgment. We agree with the State and conclude that the State's motion for reconsideration qualifies for treatment as a motion to alter or amend a judgment. The State filed the motion on June 8, 2007, within 10 days of the June 6 order granting Gibilisco postconviction relief. Further, the motion sought substantive alteration of the judgment by asserting that the June 6 order sustaining Gibilisco's motion was in error, because it concluded that Gibilisco received ineffective assistance of counsel based on his trial counsel's failure to make a motion for discharge for speedy trial act violations. The State argued in the motion for reconsideration that the postconviction motion should have been dismissed because the counts against Gibilisco contained in the amended information did not violate the speedy trial act, and therefore, Gibilisco's counsel was not ineffective for failing to move for discharge at trial. The motion for reconsideration was in effect a timely motion to alter or amend the judgment, and the district court did not err in considering the motion.