Court Opinion

ID: 9580897
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:10:02.347499+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:35.263680
License: Public Domain

Fahrnbruch, J.,
dissenting in part.
While I agree with the majority opinion that St. Paul Fire & Marine Company failed to properly plead a cause of action, based upon our holding in Suzuki v. Gateway Realty, 207 Neb. 562, 299 N.W.2d 762 (1980), I would have sustained the trial court’s dismissal of the case.
In Suzuki, the trial court also sustained a demurrer and dismissed the case. The trial court did not refuse to grant permission to amend the petition but, rather, was silent on the matter. In concluding the trial court committed no error in failing to grant the plaintiff leave to file an amended petition, we said,
This court has previously stated that, before error can be predicated upon the refusal of the court to permit an amendment to a petition after demurrer thereto is sustained, the record must show that, under the circumstances, the ruling of the court was an abuse of discretion____
In this case, the trial court, after sustaining the demurrer to the first cause of action, did not refuse to grant permission to amend the petition, but was silent on the matter and the plaintiffs at no time requested leave to amend their petition prior to the time of filing a motion for new trial in this case____
This court then can only conclude that the plaintiffs could not see any manner in which to amend their petition to allege a cause of action in negligence against Gateway and the ruling of the District Court is correct.
Id. at 565-66, 299 N.W.2d at 765-66.
Nowhere in the record does it indicate that St. Paul requested leave to amend its petition. As in Suzuki, it can only be concluded that, after the demurrer was sustained, St. Paul did not see any way to amend its petition to allege a cause of action *794against Touche Ross.
It is noted that Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-854 (Reissue 1989) provides that, if a demurrer be sustained, the adverse party may amend, if the defect can be remedied by way of amendment, with or without costs, as the court in its discretion shall direct. This court has held on several occasions that there is no absolute right to amend a petition pursuant to § 25-854. First Nat. Bank of Omaha v. State, 230 Neb. 259, 430 N.W.2d 893 (1988); Suzuki v. Gateway Realty, supra. See, also, Evans v. Metropolitan Utilities Dist., 184 Neb. 172, 166 N.W.2d 411 (1969); Weiner v. Morgan, 175 Neb. 656, 122 N.W.2d 871 (1963); Coverdale & Colpitts v. Dakota County, 144 Neb. 166, 12 N.W.2d 764 (1944). The majority veers from this longstanding principle and places an affirmative duty on a trial court to grant a party leave to file an amended petition even when, as here, the party makes no effort to amend its petition. I cannot justify placing such a burden on the trial court when it is unquestionably the burden of plaintiff’s counsel.
Hastings, C. J., and Boslaugh, J., join in this dissent.