Court Opinion

ID: 8041134
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-09 03:33:05.271282+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:37:19.121821
License: Public Domain

Krivosha, C.J.,
concurring in the result.
I concur in the result reached by the majority in this case. I believe, however, that once the majority determines that the appellant is not the real party in interest in this case, anything more we say or do is mere dictum. A similar, though not exact, *578issue was previously presented to this court in Evans v. Metropolitan Utilities Dist., 184 Neb. 172, 166 N.W.2d 411 (1969). In affirming the action taken by the district court in sustaining a demurrer and dismissing the action, we observed at 174, 166 N.W.2d at 413:
[A] real party in interest is the person “entitled to the avails of the suit,” that the person who is asserting the cause of action has a “remedial interest which the law of the forum can recognize and enforce,” and that he has a “justiciable interest in the subject matter in litigation, either in his own right or in a representative capacity.”
We then observed in Evans that the plaintiff had not made demand upon M.U.D. before filing suit in his own name. In noting that this failure was critical, we said at 174-75, 166 N.W.2d at 413: “The requirement of a demand to sue and a subsequent refusal or a waiver of demand by an indication on the part of the public corporation of an intent not to sue are conditions precedent to a representative or derivative suit on behalf of public corporations.” We concluded by noting in Evans at 175, 166 N.W.2d at 413-14:
It seems to be quite obvious that plaintiff and the others in his class have no standing as parties to bring this suit for the simple reason that they cannot be considered real parties in interest. As far as this action is concerned they are not sui juris and neither do they have any justiciable interest in this controversy at the present time because the action exists on the part of M.U.D., and M.U.D. has not refused to bring it. Further, of course, they have no interest or right to the avails of any suit of this nature, since M.U.D. itself would be the proper party plaintiff and would be entitled to all avails in the event of the successful determination that L.B. 425 is unconstitutional.
It seems clear to me that a similar situation exists in the instant case. The contract which is challenged is not a contract between Bleick and the city of Papillion but, instead, is one between the S.I.D. and the city of Papillion. Furthermore, Bleick’s claim is not to the effect that his rate alone is illegal but, rather, that the rate for all customers residing within the S.I.D. *579is illegal. It is therefore of a derivative nature, though not so pleaded. If, indeed, the contract is illegal as contended for by Bleick, then he must first demand that the S.I.D. bring suit to have the contract set aside. It seems clear to me that only in the event the S.I.D. refuses to bring such suit does Bleick have standing. I believe that is exactly what the majority suggests, and with which I am in complete agreement. I do not understand, however, how we can determine the issues between parties once we recognize that Bleick does not have standing.
Caporale, J., joins in this concurrence.