Opinion ID: 2051405
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: unmc's cross-appeal

Text: In its brief, UNMC argued as a cross-appeal that the trial court erred in awarding Schindler $15,000 for negligent infliction of emotional distress. The Court of Appeals declined to address the merits of UNMC's cross-appeal because UNMC failed to properly designate its argument as a cross-appeal. Specifically, UNMC did not designate a cross-appeal on the cover of its brief, as required by rule 9D(4), and it did not set forth the cross-appeal in a separate section of the brief. Further, UNMC did not include a title page, a table of contents, a statement of the case, assigned errors, propositions of law, or a statement of the facts, all of which are required under rule 9D(1). UNMC merely added an additional argument to its brief, and the only indications that it was intended to be a cross-appeal were the capitalized, boldface, and centered words CROSS APPEAL OF UNMC which preceded UNMC's final argument section. The Court of Appeals further relied on the firmly established proposition of law that in order to be considered by an appellate court, an alleged error must be both specifically assigned and specifically argued in the brief of the party asserting the error. See Lange v. Crouse Cartage Co., 253 Neb. 718, 572 N.W.2d 351 (1998). The Court of Appeals concluded that UNMC's brief was a violation of this proposition because UNMC failed to assign any errors on cross-appeal, as well as failed to comply with the other procedural rules for bringing a cross-appeal. It is also firmly established that errors which are argued but not assigned will not be considered by an appellate court. DeCoste v. City of Wahoo, 255 Neb. 266, 583 N.W.2d 595 (1998). We conclude that UNMC failed to properly designate its argument as a cross-appeal. As such, the Court of Appeals did not err in declining to address the merits of UNMC's cross-appeal, and we refuse to address such argument here.