Court Opinion

ID: 9661071
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:28:33.186833+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:25.319631
License: Public Domain

*45Wenke, J.,
concurring.
I am in full accord with the result arrived at by the court’s opinion and with the rules promulgated therein except I cannot agree a strict compliance with the procedural steps leading up to the allowance and settlement of a bill of exceptions cannot, under any circumstances, be waived by the parties. I do not mean to infer by the foregoing that the parties can, by waiver, extend the authority of the district court for allowing and settling a bill of exceptions beyond the maximum time as fixed, in the first instance, by statute or as it may be extended by the district court or this court.
It has always been my thought that the bench and bar of this state were and are in favor of simplifying appeal procedures by, insofar as possible, removing all unnecessary technical requirements which would have a tendency to defeat the hearing of an appeal on its merits. Let us consider two of the steps which the opinion holds must be taken within time limits provided by statute for that purpose or authority obtained for doing so beyond that time. Let us assume counsel for the party appealing obtains a certified bill of exceptions from the official court reporter within the time fixed by statute for that purpose but, because of their absence or for other good and sufficient reason, is unable to serve it on the adverse party or his attorney of record before the 51st day. Opposing counsel, being fully aware why the bill of exceptions has not been served on him or his client on or before the 50th day, makes no objection because of that fact and the bill is settled by the judge who tried the case within the time provided by statute for that purpose. Although no objection is ever made thereto in the trial court or this court we will be required to quash the bill of exceptions for under our holding in Gernandt v. Beckwith, 160 Neb. 719, 71 N. W. 2d 303, we are required to take judicial notice of the above failure to strictly comply with this procedural step. The same would be true if, through *46no fault of his own, appellant’s counsel was not able to secure a return of the bill of exceptions until the 61st day. To require such strict compliance with these procedural steps will lead to many cases not being heard on their merits. Such a result is very undesirable. I would now hold, as this court has done on many occasions, that the parties may waive a strict compliance with these procedural steps. It seems to me that unless proper and timely objection is made on that ground that a failure to strictly comply with any procedural step should cause it to be considered as waived provided the bill of exceptions can be and is allowed and settled within the time given the trial court for that purpose. If proper and timely objection is made then, of course, counsel should be required to obtain authority for doing so out of time.
, There is another reason why I cannot agree with the majority view in this respect. I think the expense of litigation should, insofar as possible, be kept at a minimum. Let us take a situation where the trial court has exhausted its authority to extend the time and counsel for the party appealing obtains the bill of exceptions within the time so provided but, because of good and sufficient reasons beyond his control, is not able to serve it in the manner provided by the statute until the 91st day or, due to no fault of his own, is unable to secure the return of the bill of exceptions before the 101st day. In either or both instances, even though opposing counsel has made no objection to the allowance and settlement of the bill of exceptions and the trial court could do so on or before the 110th day, appealing counsel must first make application to and obtain authority from this court to extend the time to serve and then to extend the time for return. This will result in needless delay and much additional expense which is wholly unjustified and all within our power to prevent.
I trust this concurring opinion serves the purpose of warning each member of the bar of the strictness with *47which these procedural steps will hereafter be applied and that he not be entrapped thereby.