Court Opinion

ID: 9676071
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:13:58.120292+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:43.496401
License: Public Domain

Caporale, J., concurring.
Although I agree that the plaintiffs have standing and that the cause is to be remanded to the district court, I write separately, for it seems to me the majority’s opinion implies that this court possesses the authority to have reviewed the cause on the merits had it elected to do so. I respectfully submit that under present law, no such authority exists.
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-1925 (Reissue 1995) provides that an appellate court, in its appellate review of suits in equity, shall review de novo those “findings of fact of the district court” *161which an appellant seeks to have reviewed. Thus, § 25-1925 limits the scope of our de novo review of factual issues to the findings of fact of the district court. It does not empower us to make original factual findings with regard to issues not reached by the district court.
In keeping with that statutory provision, we have written in equity actions that an appellate court will not consider an issue on appeal that was not presented to or passed upon by the trial tribunal. E.g., Hanigan v. Trumble, 252 Neb. 376, 562 N.W.2d 526 (1997) (action in equity to impose constructive trust); Robison v. Madsen, 246 Neb. 22, 516 N.W.2d 594 (1994) (action in equity to foreclose mechanic’s lien); How v. Mars, 245 Neb. 420, 513 N.W.2d 511 (1994) (action in equity to void election of directors); Beaver Lake Assn. v. Sorensen, 231 Neb. 75, 434 N.W.2d 703 (1989) (action in equity to enforce covenants and restrictions on real property); State v. Merritt Brothers Sand & Gravel Co., 180 Neb. 660, 144 N.W.2d 180 (1966) (action in equity to enjoin land use).
Indeed, we addressed the limits of appellate review of factual determinations in equity actions even prior to the enactment of § 25-1925 and over 100 years ago in Coombs v. MacDonald, 43 Neb. 632, 62 N.W. 41 (1895). The plaintiff therein brought an action in equity to enjoin the defendant from removing garbage under a contract which the plaintiff claimed was entered into pursuant to a void ordinance. The plaintiff alleged that the contract was procured through bribery and other unlawful and corrupt means and that it contravened settled rules of public policy. In perpetually enjoining the defendant from interfering with the plaintiff, who was also engaged in the business of removing garbage, the district court ruled that the contract and ordinance on which it depended contravened public policy, and expressly reserved any decision as to whether the contract was procured by fraud. This court concluded that the contract was not void as being against public policy, reversed the judgment of the district court, and remanded the cause for further proceedings. In refusing to consider whether the contract had been procured by fraud, we wrote: “It is a rule of universal application to appellate proceedings that the examination by the reviewing court... will be confined to issues determined by the court of primary *162jurisdiction.” Id. at 633, 62 N.W. at 42. We most recently reiterated this language in Edgerton v. Hamilton County, 150 Neb. 821, 36 N.W.2d 258 (1949) (declaratory judgment action to determine exemption of homestead from claims of creditors in estate proceeding).
It seems to me that if a majority of this court is of a mind to expansively construe § 25-1925 and overrule precedent which is over a century old, it ought to do so directly and not by implication.