Cockle v. Cockle

339 N.W.2d 63, 215 Neb. 329, 1983 Neb. LEXIS 1277
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 23, 1983
Docket82-667
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 339 N.W.2d 63 (Cockle v. Cockle) 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
Cockle v. Cockle, 339 N.W.2d 63, 215 Neb. 329, 1983 Neb. LEXIS 1277 (Neb. 1983).

Opinion

Caporale, J.

George Robert Cockle, the husband herein, ap *330 peals from the granting of a summary judgment to his wife, Mary June Smalley Cockle, registering a judgment she obtained against him in California. We affirm.

This is the second appeal of this controversy to this court. In Cockle v. Cockle, 204 Neb. 88, 281 N.W.2d 392 (1979) (Cockle I), we ruled that the May 3, 1976, judgment of the Superior Court of California, Monterey County, awarding the wife a percentage of the husband’s military retirement pay was not for an amount certain and, therefore, could not be registered. Following that decision, the wife filed a proceeding in the aforesaid California court which resulted in a November 6, 1980, determination that there was due and owing on the 1976 judgment as of September 15, 1980, the sum of $32,419.29.

Thereafter, the wife, pursuant to Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 25-1587 et seq. (Reissue 1979), filed a petition in the Nebraska Fourth Judicial District Court, Douglas County, praying that the “judgment entered on November 6, 1980, be registered . . . .”

Actual service of the notice of the proceeding resulting in the 1980 California adjudication was had upon the husband in Omaha, where he resides, by U.S. mail. The 1980 ruling of the California court noted that the husband did not appear in person, but was represented by counsel, and that his “ [mjotion to terminate retirement payments is hereby denied. Said Judgment is final and conclusive. Said Judgment providing for assignment and continued payments by Defendant [husband] to Plaintiff [wife] remains in full force and effect.”

The husband appealed the 1980 determination to the Court of Appeal of the State of California, but did not file a supersedeas bond. Although the wife’s brief undertakes to advise us as to the subsequent history of that appeal, the record contains nothing concerning it. We therefore must, and do, ignore all plaintiff says concerning that history.

The operative assignments of error discussed in the *331 husband’s brief are that the trial court erred in not finding (1) this action is barred by the doctrine of res judicata; (2) the judgment sought to be registered is invalid and not final; and (3) the judgment sought to be registered is contrary to law and, therefore, unenforceable.

In an additional purported assignment of error the husband states: “The District Court erred by overruling Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment in which the Defendant showed the Court that the Plaintiff’s action was barred by the Statute of Limitations.” Brief for Appellant at 2. The overruling of a motion for summary judgment is not a final, appealable order. Rehn v. Bingaman, 157 Neb. 467, 59 N.W.2d 614 (1953). See, also, Wulf v. Farm Bureau Ins. Co., 188 Neb. 258, 196 N.W.2d 164 (1972), holding that an order denying relief on a plea of the statute of limitations is to be treated as an interlocutory order. . None of the husband’s assignments of error reach the argument in his brief that his demurrer was erroneously overruled because the petition shows on its face that the cause of action was barred by the 5-year period of limitations specified by Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-205 (Reissue 1979). Therefore, any error in overruling the demurrer, if any error there was, has been waived.

The husband’s first operative assignment of error is that the instant cause of action is somehow barred by this court’s opinion in Cockle I. Before any meaningful analysis of this issue can be made, we must determine what actually is being presented for registration. The wife’s petition refers to both the 1976 California judgment and the 1980 adjudication. Both the 1976 judgment and 1980 determination are attached to her petition for registration. The 1980 ruling refers to the 1976 judgment and does no more than determine what was due as of September 15, 1980, under the 1976 judgment. Therefore, it is, under the petition’s factual allegations, the 1976 judgment in the amount determined by the 1980 ruling *332 which is presented for registration, notwithstanding the prayer’s sole reference to the 1980 judgment.

The husband argues that Cedars Corp. v. Sun Valley Development Co., 213 Neb. 622, 330 N.W.2d 900 (1983), demands a holding that the doctrine of res judicata forecloses this action. He misreads Cedars Corp. It holds that the doctrine of collateral estoppel may be applied where an identical issue was decided in a prior action, there was a judgment on the merits which was final, the party against whom the rule is to be applied was a party or in privity with a party to the prior action, and there was an opportunity to fully and fairly litigate the issue in the prior action. Cedars Corp. has no applicability to the case before us, as the issue in Cockle I and the issue in the present case are not the same. In Cockle I the wife sought to register a judgment in an uncertain amount. Here, she seeks to register the judgment in an amount made certain by a subsequent judicial act. This is, therefore, a case wherein the subject matter at issue is different than that which was at issue in Cockle I. Where different proof is required to establish a cause, a judgment in one action does not preclude another action. Northport Irr. Dist. v. Jess, ante p. 152, 337 N.W.2d 733 (1983); Suhr v. City of Scribner, 207 Neb. 24, 295 N.W.2d 302 (1980).

The record, therefore, does not sustain the husband’s first operative assignment of error.

The next assignment of error presents two questions: Firstly, whether the 1980 determination of the amount owed is valid in the sense that the California court had in personam jurisdiction over the husband, and secondly, whether, in view of the appeal, the judgment is final such as to be entitled to registration.

No presentation was made to the trial court or to this court concerning California’s jurisdictional requirements. Under that circumstance we presume the common and statutory law of California to be the *333 same as the law of Nebraska. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-12,101 (Reissue 1979); In re Estate of Thompson, 214 Neb. 899, 336 N.W.2d 590 (1983).

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Bluebook (online)
339 N.W.2d 63, 215 Neb. 329, 1983 Neb. LEXIS 1277, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cockle-v-cockle-neb-1983.