Opinion ID: 1913725
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: validity of elections

Text: The plaintiffs allege in their third assignment of error that the 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989 elections of the Association's board of directors should be invalidated. The plaintiffs' fourth amended petition alleges in part as follows: 8. That the right to vote ... for members of the Association's Board of Directors is not a privilege which can be restricted or denied through covenant or resolution, but an absolute right granted to all regular members of the Association. 9. That Defendants wrongfully restricted the May 17, 1987 election and similar elections in 1985 and 1986 of the Board of Directors by prohibiting regular members to vote for the Directors ... unless their Association assessments ... were paid in full. Similar restrictions were applied, and improperly applied, to subsequent elections in 1988 and 1989. 10. That each of the elections for Directors of the Association in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1989 is void because authorized voting members were wrongfully and unlawfully instructed ... that they were unqualified to vote by virtue of nonpayment of Association dues and/or assessments and by that reason, either did not vote or were restricted from voting by Defendants. In their brief, the plaintiffs argue that the elections are void because the bylaws, as amended in 1978 and 1990, were not properly enacted and recorded. However, the issue of whether the bylaws were properly enacted and recorded was not raised by the plaintiffs' fourth amended petition, and the trial court correctly refused to decide issues which had not been properly pled. See Neb.Rev.Stat. § 25-1101 et seq. (Reissue 1989). Moreover, an issue not presented to or passed upon by the trial court is not an appropriate issue for consideration upon appeal. Central States Resources v. First Nat. Bank, 243 Neb. 538, 501 N.W.2d 271 (1993); In re Estate of Seidler, 241 Neb. 402, 490 N.W.2d 453 (1992). We now turn to the only issue framed by the pleadings in the plaintiffs' first cause of action, that is, whether members of the Association who are delinquent in their assessments and/or dues may be restricted from voting at board of directors elections by virtue of the bylaws as they existed at the time of the elections in question. The legislation governing nonprofit corporations in Nebraska is the Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act, Neb.Rev.Stat. § 21-1901 et seq. (Reissue 1991). Section 21-1914 of that act provides: The right of the members, or any class or classes of members [of a nonprofit corporation], to vote may be limited, enlarged, or denied to the extent specified in the articles of incorporation or the bylaws. Unless so limited, enlarged, or denied, each member, regardless of class, shall be entitled to one vote on each matter submitted to a vote of members. (Emphasis supplied.) Both the articles of incorporation of the Association and its initial bylaws, adopted August 30, 1974, grant the board of directors the authority to amend the bylaws. The 1974 bylaws provide in article II, § 6, that [e]ach Regular Member shall be entitled in the election of directors of the corporation to cast ... one vote for each such membership held. The bylaws were revised on July 20, 1978, and amended in 1983. Article II, § 6, of the amended 1978 bylaws, which were in effect at all times material to this case, provides: Each Regular Member of good standing at the date of the election shall be entitled in the election of directors of the corporation to cast ... one vote for each such dues-paying membership held.... Members not in good standing as to membership dues shall not be entitled to voting privileges. (Emphasis supplied.) Because § 21-1914 specifically provides that the rights of members of nonprofit corporations to vote may be limited as specified in the bylaws, and the 1978 bylaws as amended explicitly limit voting rights to members in good standing as to membership dues, it was not clearly erroneous for the trial court to find that members delinquent in their payment of dues were restricted from voting for the board of directors. The trial court correctly dismissed this cause of action.