Court Opinion

ID: 9700535
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:33:59.692705+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:10.490780
License: Public Domain

Caporale, J.,
concurring.
I concur with the majority’s conclusion that the district court’s judgment must be reversed and the cause remanded for dismissal, but I differ as to the reason.
In my view the plaintiff, Joyce Sell, has failed to prove any facts constituting a cause of action, notwithstanding that the record supports a finding that the defendant, Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital Association, violated its own rules *273concerning the identification of unconscious or dead persons brought to it. We have defined a “cause of action” as a set of facts on which recovery may be had. Lewis v. Poduska, 240 Neb. 312, 481 N.W.2d 898 (1992). Stated in a slightly different way, a cause of action consists of a fact or facts that give one a right to judicial relief. Widga v. Sandell, 236 Neb. 798, 464 N.W.2d 155 (1991). In more elaborate terms, a cause of action is the judicial protection of one’s recognized right or interest when another, owing a corresponding duty not to invade or violate such right or interest, has caused a breach of that duty. Millman v. County of Butler, 235 Neb. 915, 458 N.W.2d 207 (1990). Thus, inherent in a common-law cause of action is the juridical determination that a given set of facts gives rise to a right or interest the violation of which warrants vindication.
I have difficulty accepting the notion that the courts must intervene each and every time a mistake has been made and rush to assuage one’s transitory psychic reaction with a monetary award. The most important factors to take into account in determining whether a court should take cognizance of an occurrence and give common-law relief are the nature of the mistake and the resulting consequences.
Under the circumstances presented in this case, it seems to me we should shed tears for the loss of young Jon Stones’ life, empathize with the grief of his family and friends, rejoice in Scott Sell’s life, and move on.