Brunken v. City of Omaha Employees' Retirement System Board of Trustees

405 N.W.2d 595, 225 Neb. 410, 1987 Neb. LEXIS 896
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1987
DocketNo. 86-111
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 405 N.W.2d 595 (Brunken v. City of Omaha Employees' Retirement System Board of Trustees) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brunken v. City of Omaha Employees' Retirement System Board of Trustees, 405 N.W.2d 595, 225 Neb. 410, 1987 Neb. LEXIS 896 (Neb. 1987).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

This appeal deals with the single question as to whether the appellant, Norman R. Brunken, was entitled to receive a monthly disability pension from the City of Omaha by reason of his having become permanently unfit for active duty as a city employee. While the question itself is relatively simple and straightforward, the case is anything but simple and straightforward. The first thing we must do, then, is attempt to sort out the pieces so that the question involved in the appeal can be addressed.

In reality, two appeals were ultimately filed in the district court for Douglas County, Nebraska, from actions taken by the City of Omaha Employees’ Retirement System Board of Trustees (Board). Those appeals were consolidated, for argument only, first in the district court and again in this court. While they have been consolidated for argument, they remain two separate cases and should be addressed as such.

The first case (docket 841, page 174) was filed in the district court for Douglas County, Nebraska, on December 19, 1984, and sought to review a decision entered by the Board following [412]*412a hearing held on November 21,1984. The exact date the Board entered the decision denying Brunken’s request for disability payments is not shown.

On January 9,1985, while the matter was pending on appeal in the district court, the district court sustained a motion filed by the City of Omaha to strike paragraph 3 of Brunken’s petition in error, which alleged, “Chapter 22 of the Ordinance of the City of Omaha, establish [sic] a Pension and Retirement Plan and Disability Retirement. Such chapter is attached hereto and incorporated herein as Exhibit ‘A,’ ” on the basis that Brunken had failed to introduce the ordinance at the hearing before the Board. Brunken then sought to file a supplemental transcript in which he added the city ordinance, for the first time, before the district court. The district court denied the request, and Brunken then filed a second application before the Board, seeking a determination that he was eligible for disability benefits under the Omaha city ordinance.

At this subsequent hearing he reintroduced all of the evidence previously introduced at the first hearing and, in addition, presented the Board with a copy of the relevant Omaha city ordinance. This second hearing resulted in the Board’s once again denying Brunken disability benefits, and that order was then appealed to the district court for Douglas County, Nebraska, and is docket 844, page 723.

While the matters were consolidated for argument in both the district court and again in this court, we believe that we can avoid some of the confusion if we review them separately. For that reason we will first examine the decision entered following the hearing held on November 21,1984, at which the ordinance of the City of Omaha was not made a part of the record. We believe that the district court was correct in its decision regarding the striking of paragraph 3 of Brunken’s petition in error and thereafter affirming the action of the Board. The specific question was earlier presented to this court in the case of Andrews v. City of Fremont, 213 Neb. 148, 328 N.W.2d 194 (1982), and is dispositive of the issue.

In Andrews a landowner appealed a decision by the city council of the City of Fremont, which refused to subdivide a tract of land owned by appellant. Copies of the relevant [413]*413ordinances were not presented to the city council and were not made a part of the transcript filed in the district court for Dodge County, Nebraska. In affirming the action of the district court, we said at 151-52, 328 N.W.2d at 196:

As stated before, the transcript which was filed in the District Court, and which is brought to this court on appeal, does not contain the ordinances. Each of the nine assignments of error presented to the District Court and presented to this court refers to the ordinances of the City of Fremont, which simply were not before the District Court and are not before us as they did not appear in the transcript of the proceedings had before the city council of the City of Fremont, and we are powerless to review them. Courts of general jurisdiction will not take judicial notice of municipal ordinances not present in the record, nor will the Supreme Court.

We went on further in Andrews, supra at 152, 328 N.W.2d at 196, to say:

New evidence is not permitted in the appellate court to determine if errors of law occurred in the tribunal giving rise to the error proceeding. [Citations omitted.]
Where errors assigned require review of evidence in error proceedings, they cannot be considered in the absence of a bill of exceptions.

We concluded in Andrews, supra at 152, 328 N.W.2d at 197, by saying: “Appellant remains free to refile her application for subdivision with the city council and to make a proper record with that tribunal.”

Neither the district court for Douglas County, Nebraska, nor this court has any means to review the action of the Board regarding the first hearing, in view of the fact that in order to review the action we must have before us the relevant ordinance and it was not made a part of the transcript. Brunken’s attempt to supplement the transcript on appeal was without authority. Because the issue of whether Brunken was entitled to disability was dependent upon the language of the Omaha city ordinance, neither the district court nor this court could properly pass upon the issue without having the ordinance before it. For that reason, if for no other reason, the action of the district court in [414]*414ultimately affirming the action of the Board denying to Brunken disability in docket 841, page 174, was correct and should be affirmed in this court.

That, then, leaves us with a review of the second case, docket 844, page 723. Brunken has assigned a number of errors, including that he had been denied his constitutional rights to due process and had been denied justice. Those arguments apparently are based upon some notion that Brunken was prevented from introducing evidence at the second hearing to establish his disability. While much is made of all of this by Brunken, a reading of the record quickly dispels any such contention.

The verbatim transcript discloses that on May 15, 1985, Brunken and his attorney appeared before the Board, where his attorney said:

My name is Dan Ryberg, and I am the attorney representing Mr. Brunken. The reason that we brought this back to you is not because there has been any change, but because the District Court wanted a record, or wanted the ordinance of the pension on record, and that wasn’t in the record and therefore I have to come back to you to make a record and put the ordinance in. That’s really why we are here today, and that’s really the only reason we’re here today is simply to make the record that the District Court says should have been made in the first place. So to that end, I do have a copy of the Chapter 22 of the ordinance which I believe is what the court is guided by that I have marked at the bottom as Exhibit “W” and submit it for your consideration.

Ryberg then went on to say: “Well, with that regard, I do have a package that has been given to you which I think is pretty much of a historical development of Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
405 N.W.2d 595, 225 Neb. 410, 1987 Neb. LEXIS 896, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brunken-v-city-of-omaha-employees-retirement-system-board-of-trustees-neb-1987.