Opinion ID: 1612232
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 39

Heading: Instructions Regarding 1994 Findings

Text: The trial was bifurcated on Roles, Nebraska Nutrients, and Tri-State's motion, in which they contended that the counterclaims involved a substantial amount of expert discovery and testimony which were not germane to the issues raised in their petition. Prior to the 1998 jury trial, and after discussion with counsel at a status conference, the court entered an order, setting forth those findings of fact which it had made following the 1994 trial as well as specific issues which would be submitted to the jury for determination following the 1998 trial. Following entry of this order, Roles filed a motion in limine seeking to exclude all references to the court's findings of fraud following the 1994 trial. In overruling this motion, the district court specifically stated that it would instruct the jury at the commencement of trial that it was bound to accept the findings which the court had made following the 1994 trial, including the findings that Roles had induced Shepherd and Corbet to execute the disclaimers based upon fraudulent representations. Roles did not object when the court gave this preliminary instruction. Roles subsequently offered the disclaimers as evidence during the 1998 trial. When a motion in limine to exclude evidence is overruled, the movant must object when the particular evidence which was sought to be excluded by the motion is offered during trial in order to preserve error for appeal. Allphin v. Ward, 253 Neb. 302, 570 N.W.2d 360 (1997). Failure to object to a jury instruction after it has been submitted to counsel for review precludes raising an objection on appeal absent plain error. Nelson v. Lusterstone Surfacing Co., 258 Neb. 678, 605 N.W.2d 136 (2000). Because Roles had notice that the court intended to give a preliminary instruction regarding its previous findings and did not object at the time the instruction was given, he has not preserved any alleged error with respect to the giving of the preliminary instruction. The trial court's 1994 findings were also included in a Statement of the Case instruction, designated instruction No. 8, given at the close of the evidence. Roles objected generally to the giving of this instruction and made specific objections to certain portions of the instruction, but not to that portion which set forth the court's previous findings. Assuming without deciding that this objection preserved the error which Roles argues on appeal, the record does not establish that the inclusion of the 1994 findings in instruction No. 8 was prejudicial. The same instruction specifically informed the jury that it could not award any damages by virtue of the fraudulent misrepresentations by Roles. In addition, the jury was instructed that the trial judge was not permitted to comment on the evidence and that if it appeared that he had so commented during either the trial or the giving of the instructions, the apparent comment should be disregarded. The jury was also instructed not to interpret the judge's statements or rulings as an opinion as to how the case should be decided. We therefore conclude that there was no reversible error in giving instruction No. 8.