Opinion ID: 1858075
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: analysis

Text: Currie asserts that the district court's order, awarding Chief damages on its counterclaim, was void because the district court was divested of jurisdiction to proceed on the counterclaim once Currie perfected the appeal of the order granting summary judgment. As a general proposition, an appellate court and the tribunal appealed from do not have jurisdiction over the same case at the same time. See, e.g., State Bank of Beaver Crossing v. Mackley, 118 Neb. 734, 226 N.W. 318 (1929); County of Douglas v. Burts, 2 Neb.App. 90, 507 N.W.2d 310 (1993). Thus, we must determine which court, the district court or the Court of Appeals, possessed jurisdiction over this case at the time the trial on the counterclaim was conducted. Currie cites Nuttelman v. Julch, 228 Neb. 750, 424 N.W.2d 333 (1988), in support of the position that the district court was divested of jurisdiction to hear Chief's counterclaim once Currie perfected the appeal of the summary judgment order. In Nuttelman, the plaintiff brought a petition in ejectment against the defendants. The defendants counterclaimed, alleging that the plaintiff's petition was frivolous and vexatious, for which they sought relief by injunction and money damages. The district court dismissed the plaintiff's petition with prejudice and held that there remained justiciable issues of fact to be resolved upon the defendants' counterclaims. After the plaintiff filed an appeal of the decision to this court, the district court dismissed the defendants' counterclaims. This court held that the district court was without authority to issue an order dismissing the counterclaims. Any order made by the district court after the vesting of jurisdiction in the Supreme Court is void and of no effect. The district court lost jurisdiction the instant the appeal was perfected. Nuttelman v. Julch, 228 Neb. at 756, 424 N.W.2d at 338. Clearly, the court in Nuttelman, which is procedurally similar to the instant case, reached a result favorable to Currie's position. However, in Nuttelman, the court did not discuss the connection of the counterclaim with the subject matter of the action or analyze whether the order issued was a final, appealable order. In the instant case, Chief argues that Currie's appeal of the order granting summary judgment did not divest the district court of jurisdiction to consider its counterclaim because (1) the counterclaim arose from a separate and distinct set of operative facts than Currie's cause of action, and (2) the counterclaim was pending in the district court at the time of the appeal, making the appeal a nullity, since appellate courts are without jurisdiction to entertain appeals from nonfinal orders.