Opinion ID: 1736103
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 18

Heading: Beneficiary Accounts

Text: In her brief, Tipp argues that the county court erred in requiring her to pay over to the trust the amounts she received upon Monroe's death as beneficiary of accounts at Pentagon Federal Credit Union. However, she did not specifically assign error with respect to this argument. Maynard contends that this precludes our consideration of this issue under the principle that in the absence of plain error, an appellate court considers only claimed errors which are both assigned and discussed. In re Petition of SID No. 1, 270 Neb. 856, 708 N.W.2d 809 (2006); State v. Carter, 255 Neb. 591, 586 N.W.2d 818 (1998). We disagree. Initially, we note that the record is ambiguous as to the exact status of the accounts held at Pentagon Federal Credit Union. Some evidence suggests that the accounts were jointly held by Monroe and Tipp, while other evidence suggests that the accounts were POD accounts to Tipp. In any event, the status of these accounts does not preclude our resolution of this issue. Tipp's other assignments of error fairly raise issues of whether the county court erred in ordering that jointly held property and POD accounts be included in the trust estate. On the facts of this case, we consider the issue with respect to the accounts at Pentagon Federal Credit Union to be encompassed in those assignments of error. We therefore conclude, for the same reasons we articulated for the jointly held property and the POD accounts, that the county court erred in ordering Tipp to pay the proceeds of the accounts held at Pentagon Federal Credit Union to the trust estate.