Opinion ID: 1782182
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Did District Court Err by Allowing Intervention?

Text: In their second assignment of error, the taxpayers contend that the district court erred by granting the freeholders the right to intervene. A review of the record reveals that following the decision of the Board, the taxpayers filed their appeal with the district court under § 79-458(5). However, the taxpayers failed to caption the freeholders as parties, nor was notice of the appeal served on the freeholders. The Board then filed a motion alleging the freeholders were indispensable parties under what is now codified as Neb. Ct. R. Pldg. § 6-112(b)(7). The district court sustained the Board's motion and directed the taxpayers to serve notice on the freeholders. The court's order gave the freeholders 30 days in which to file a petition in intervention if they so chose. The taxpayers first contend that the petitions in intervention should not have been granted and that the freeholders were not indispensable parties. Intervention is authorized by Neb.Rev.Stat. § 25-328 (Reissue 2008), which provides: Any person who has or claims an interest in the matter in litigation, in the success of either of the parties to an action, or against both, in any action pending or to be brought in any of the courts of the State of Nebraska, may become a party to an action between any other persons or corporations, either by joining the plaintiff in claiming what is sought by the complaint, or by uniting with the defendants in resisting the claim of the plaintiff, or by demanding anything adversely to both the plaintiff and defendant, either before or after issue has been joined in the action, and before the trial commences. The interest required as a prerequisite to intervention under § 25-328 is a direct and legal interest in the controversy, which is an interest of such character that the intervenor will lose or gain by the direct operation and legal effect of the judgment which may be rendered in the action. [11] In this case, the subject matter of the appeal before the district court is whether the Board should have transferred the freeholders' property from the Wynot school district to the Hartington school district. And the freeholders were the parties to initially request the transfer of such property. It is difficult to comprehend how the freeholders would not have a direct and legal interest in the culmination of a process they began, a process that determines the school district in which their properties are located. Moreover, it seems clear that the freeholders are indispensable parties. An indispensable or necessary party to a suit is one whose interest in the subject matter of the controversy is such that the controversy cannot be finally adjudicated without affecting the indispensable party's interest, or which is such that not to address the interest of the indispensable party would leave the controversy in such a condition that its final determination may be wholly inconsistent with equity and good conscience. [12] The freeholders also meet this definition for the same general reasons noted with respect to intervention. The taxpayers' action in the district court requires the court to determine whether the freeholders' property should be transferred from one school district to another. This controversy cannot be adjudicated without affecting the freeholders' interests. The taxpayers' argument that the freeholders should not be permitted to intervene because [w]hether the petitioners seeking land transfers are present before the Court or not, the Court must decide the validity of the Board's actions [13] is not persuasive. As will be discussed in more detail below, the appeal before the district court is a trial de novo, which means a new hearing with new evidence. Thus, in this instance, the district court is not limited to deciding whether the Board's actions were valid, but instead will decide anew whether the transfer is valid. This should be done with input and argument from all affected parties, including the taxpayers and the freeholders. The district court did not err by allowing the freeholders to intervene. The taxpayers' second assignment of error is without merit.