Court Opinion

ID: 9677662
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:56:47.419578+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:57.445132
License: Public Domain

Caporale, J.,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent on the ground that in its present posture this appeal presents no case or controversy which requires judicial action.
The majority concedes the matter is moot, but justifies rendering an advisory opinion on the ground that the subject is one of public interest. I recognize there is some precedent for such a position, but question the applicability of that precedent to the matter at hand. Meyer v. Colin, 204 Neb. 96, 281 N.W.2d 737 (1979), recognized the general rule to be that appellate courts do not sit to give opinions in cases or controversies which have become moot and that an appeal will be dismissed where no actual controversy still exists between the parties at the time of hearing. It concluded, however, that the general rule does not apply to appeals involving matters of public interest. Yet, earlier this year we dismissed on the ground of mootness the case of Ellis v. County of Scotts Bluff, 210 Neb. 495, 315 N.W.2d 451 (1982), which presented an issue as to the power of county boards of commissioners over the budgets of elected officials. Meyer involved an ongoing budgetary practice and had become moot because the budget year in question had expired and the plaintiff was no longer the assessor. In Ellis there was no showing that the practice complained of would be repeated, nor was there any judicially enforceable remedy which might have been applied. Notwithstanding those distinctions between Meyer and Ellis, the latter case instructs us that the pres*747ence of a public interest standing alone is not enough to warrant an advisory opinion. The earlier case of Braesch v. DePasquale, 200 Neb. 726, 265 N.W.2d 842 (1978), cert. denied 439 U.S. 1068, 99 S. Ct. 836, 59 L. Ed. 2d 34 (1979), taught the same lesson. Braesch decided the enforceability of certain rules governing the conduct of participants in interscholastic athletics notwithstanding the fact the plaintiffs had graduated from school. It did so because almost no casé involving disciplinary action in the field of interscholastic competition could reach us before it became moot.
That rationale does not apply to this matter. We are not yet so far behind in our docket that a proper case involving an actual controversy between parties each of whom has a stake in the outcome can not be presented to us.
The practice of rendering advisory opinions whenever we choose to declare the existence of a public interest constitutes an unwarranted intrusion by the judiciary in the affairs of society, confuses the bar as to when such opinions may be sought, confounds litigants, and contributes to the very docket congestion we all seek to avoid.
I would dismiss on the ground of mootness and vacate the judgment of the District Court.