Opinion ID: 2230384
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Pretrial and Trial Procedures

Text: In defendants' second assignment of error, they contend that the district court erred in its pretrial and trial handling of the case. To be considered by an appellate court, an alleged error must be both specifically assigned and specifically argued in the brief of the party assigning the error. In re Petition of Omaha Pub. Power Dist., 268 Neb. 43, 680 N.W.2d 128 (2004). We therefore address only that argument in defendants' brief which is specifically directed to this assignment, namely, that the district court's pretrial orders and trial scheduling did not allow defendants sufficient time to prepare for trial. Because a trial judge has broad discretion over the general conduct of a trial, we review this assignment of error for abuse of discretion. See Yopp v. Batt, 237 Neb. 779, 467 N.W.2d 868 (1991). As noted, this action was commenced in May 2001. The record reflects that plaintiffs served discovery requests some time prior to August 28 of the same year. In November and again in December 2001, plaintiffs sought to take the depositions of Bloemer and Hollingshead, but were unsuccessful in obtaining dates on which these defendants would agree to appear for deposition. Defendants first served discovery requests on plaintiffs in December 2001. Plaintiffs responded in part in January 2002. The district court conducted a hearing on pending discovery issues and other matters on January 4, 2002. At that hearing, counsel for defendants suggested that the depositions could be scheduled in the latter part of January, and the court ordered that they be scheduled by February 15. On January 30, the court scheduled the trial to commence on May 13. The court later clarified for the record that it set the date partly based upon its concern that the nature of the case, which involved foreclosures and evictions, demanded a speedy trial in order to protect the interests involved. Apparently due to a pending criminal case involving Bloemer and Hollingshead, their depositions were not taken in this case until late April 2002. It appears that no request was made by defendants to depose any of the plaintiffs until April 2002. On May 3, the district court granted defendants' motion for continuance in part and continued the first day of trial to May 15. It scheduled various trial days from May 15 through 23 and from June 17 through 28 and permitted discovery to continue through June 14. Under case progression standards adopted by this court, trials in nonjury civil cases are to be held within 1 year from the date of filing, although a longer interval may be approved where deemed necessary because of extraordinary eventualities, such as exceptionally complicated discovery. See Neb. Ct. R. of Case Progression Standards (rev.2000). The trial of this case began exactly 1 year after the initial petition was filed. From our review of the record, we conclude that the district court made reasonable efforts to accommodate the stated needs of the parties for discovery and trial preparation while at the same time insisting that the case be resolved in a timely manner consistent with the standards promulgated by this court. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in its pretrial rulings regarding case progression or in setting the case for trial.