Child Support Enforcement - Sarpy County Nebraska

State ex rel. Lemon v. Gale, 272 Neb. 295, 721 N.W.2d 347 (2006)
In order to be considered by an appellate court, an alleged error must be both
specifically assigned and specifically argued in the brief of the party asserting the
error.
J & H Swine v. Hartington Concrete*, 12 Neb. App. 885, 687 N.W.2d 9 (2004)
Rule: Timing is everything. This case, if anything, may teach the necessity for patience.
For an appellate court to acquire jurisdiction of an appeal, there must be a final
order entered by the court from which the appeal is taken; conversely, an appellate
court is without jurisdiction to entertain appeals from nonfinal orders.
A notice of appeal filed before the trial court announced a ―decision or final order‖
within the meaning of Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-1912(2) (Cum. Supp. 2002) in final
determination of an issue of costs cannot relate forward.
An award of costs in a judgment is considered a part of the judgment.
The failure of a trial court to rule on a motion for costs in its judgment leaves a
portion of the judgment unresolved, and consequently, an order entering such
judgment is not final for the purpose of appeal.
*See also the Civil Procedure section of this outline
Smeal Fire Apparatus Co. v. Kreikemeier (Smeal II), 279 Neb. 661, ___ N.W.2d
___(2010)
You might say that the fire truck has upset the apple cart. The Supreme Court
uses this opinion to reverse course and overturn an entire series of earlier
court opinions relating to civil contempt of court as well as the burden of proof
needed to sustain a finding of civil contempt.
Although there is no graceful way of retreating from this
court‟s previous rulings, some of our troubling contempt
cases have created needless difficulties at both the trial and the appellate
levels. An untangling of the snarls was long overdue. Our decision changes
the legal landscape of our present contempt law. We overrule a long line of
cases affecting a trial court‟s jurisdiction, an appellate court‟s jurisdiction, and
the standard of proof in civil contempt cases.
1. May a contemnor appeal a civil contempt order from a separate postjudgment
proceeding? Yes.
2. We hold that in a civil contempt proceeding, a district court has inherent power to
order compensatory relief when a contemnor has violated its order or judgment. We
further hold that whether a contempt sanction is civil or criminal is relevant only
when a party appeals from an interlocutory order of contempt. An interlocutory
contempt order is an order that a court issues during an ongoing proceeding before
the final judgment in the main action.
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