Court Opinion

ID: 9580113
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:01:58.943321+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:02.585930
License: Public Domain

Grant, J., Retired,
dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority’s reversal of the summary judgment in favor of Dalton. I respectfully dissent from the granting of Universal’s motion for summary judgment.
I agree with the majority’s holding that deposit in Universal’s post office box in Omaha constitutes delivery to Universal. I cannot agree that when Universal makes one pickup from the post office box in Omaha on May 15,1991, and the next pickup is made on May 16, that it may be concluded that mail taken out of the post office box by Universal on May 16 was deposited in that post office box after 12:01 a.m. on May 16. On the present state of the record, I think there is an equally persuasive conclusion that the letter was deposited, by a U.S. mail-sorting postal clerk, into.Universal’s post office box by 11:59 p.m. on May 15.
It is true that affidavits state that the standard for delivery of mail is 2 days from Scottsbluff, Nebraska, to Omaha, *295Nebraska. It is also true that plaintiff’s affidavits show the mail in question was deposited in a mailbox in Scottsbluff between 4 and 4:30 p.m. on May 14. Universal’s affidavits show that the mail for Universal was picked up on May 16 at an unstated hour, but, according to Universal’s affidavits, at a sufficiently early hour to be delivered to Universal’s bank and later forwarded by the bank to Universal — all of which banking and business activity must have taken place before 4 p.m. on May 16. That means the mail was delivered from Scottsbluff to Universal’s post office box in Omaha in less than 48 hours. The question remains — how much before the expiration of 48 hours?
The facts concerning the time that mail was actually placed in Universal’s post office box in Omaha are much more likely to be able to be proved by Universal, located in Omaha, than by Dalton, located in Scottsbluff. I would place the burden on Universal to prove that Dalton’s report and check were received after 11:59 p.m. on May 15, 1991, and were thus too late for Dalton’s purposes. In my judgment, that fact question is open, and neither party is entitled to summary judgment.