Court Opinion

ID: 9521356
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:03:12.73144+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:49:41.728150
License: Public Domain

Caporale, J.,
concurring.
I agree with the majority’s judgment but write separately to clarify that no special proceeding was involved in Currie v. Chief School Bus Serv., 250 Neb. 872, 553 N.W.2d 469 (1996); the summary judgment was final and appealable because it affected a substantial right in an action by determining the action insofar as the plaintiff’s cause was concerned.
I also wish to make reference to two other cases which help define the circumstances under which a so-called partial summary judgment is final and appealable. Perhaps the most sue*128cinct statement of the underlying principle is found in Larsen v. Ralston Bank, 236 Neb. 880, 883, 464 N.W.2d 329, 332 (1991): “Whether a partial summary judgment is a final and appealable order depends upon its effect.” As the judgment in Larsen made factual findings but did not adjudicate the case, it was held to not be final and appealable. Conversely, the so-called partial summary judgment in Blankenship v. Omaha P. P. Dist., 195 Neb. 170, 237 N.W.2d 86 (1976), dismissing the suit which had been brought on behalf of a purported class without prejudice to the individual plaintiff to sue on his own behalf, was held to be final and appealable, as it determined the merits of the individual plaintiff’s claim to represent the class and thus directly affected much of the relief he sought.
I have used the term “so-called” because it would seem that no judgment which fully adjudicates a matter can accurately be described as partial. In any event, as noted in my concurrence in Larsen, supra, given the grave consequence of a mistaken determination by a party that a summary judgment, partial or otherwise, is not appealable, it is to be anticipated that litigants will appeal prematurely rather than run the risk of not being able to appeal at all. The parties’ interests here would have been better served had the Kaufmans filed a motion for new trial and the trial court delayed ruling thereon until the matter of damages had been finally adjudicated. Then all questions, if any, could have been appealed at one time.
Stephan, J., joins in this concurrence.