City of Neb. v. Meints
| Decision Date | 04 June 2019 |
| Docket Number | Nos. A-18-300 through A-18-320.,s. A-18-300 through A-18-320. |
| Parties | CITY OF BEATRICE, Nebraska, appellee, v. Daniel A. MEINTS, Sr., appellant. |
| Court | Nebraska Court of Appeals |
Terry K. Barber, of Barber & Barber, P.C., L.L.O., Lincoln, for appellant.
Abigail M. Stark, Beatrice City Attorney, for appellee.
Daniel A. Meints, Sr., appeals an order of the Gage County District Court relating to 21 writs of execution issued by the district court involving a parcel of real property he owns. Meints claims that the judgments on which the City of Beatrice, Nebraska, requested execution were dormant, that he was entitled to exemptions from execution, and that Lynette Reinke should have been allowed to intervene in the proceedings. For the reasons stated below, we affirm.
On 25 separate dates in May and June 2011, police officers cited Meints for parking several junked or unlicensed motor vehicles on his property in violation of Beatrice Mun. Code, ch. 16, art. XVII, § 16-623 (2002). Meints was charged with 12 counts in each of 25 cases brought against him and was convicted on all 300 counts in a consolidated trial. In April 2012, the Gage County Court entered judgments against Meints in each case; each of the 25 judgments included court costs and 12 fines equal to $ 1,299 per judgment, or a total of $ 32,475.
Meints appealed to the Gage County District Court, which, in each case, affirmed 10 of the 12 convictions and sentences and reversed 2 of the convictions.
Meints then appealed to the Nebraska Court of Appeals, which affirmed the judgment of the district court. See City of Beatrice v. Meints , 21 Neb.App. 805, 844 N.W.2d 85 (2014). On petition for further review, the Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals. See City of Beatrice v. Meints , 289 Neb. 558, 856 N.W.2d 410 (2014). In March 2015, the county court issued orders of judgment on 10 of the 12 fines in each of the 25 cases in accordance with the mandate from the district court.
In December 2017, the City of Beatrice filed 21 praecipes requesting that the clerk of the district court issue execution on 21 of the 25 judgments against Meints. Each praecipe requested that the sheriff levy on the same parcel of real property owned by Meints located on South 9th Street in Beatrice, Nebraska. The district court issued 21 writs of execution in response to the requests.
On January 2, 2018, Meints filed a request for a hearing in the district court alleging that some or all of his property seized may be exempt from execution. On January 10, Meints filed a motion to quash the execution, alleging that the judgments the City of Beatrice sought to execute were dormant because it had been over 5 years since the court issued the May 2012 order requiring him to pay the fees and costs.
Also on January 10, 2018, Reinke, who Meints' counsel identified as Meints' girlfriend, filed a motion to intervene in the proceedings and a complaint in intervention. Reinke alleged that she had an ownership interest in a property involved in the execution because she purchased tax sale certificates in 2011, she was a resident of the property, and her tax sale certificates provided her a right to intervene.
A hearing was held in January 2018 on Meints' claim for exemptions during which Meints claimed he was entitled to a serviceman’s exemption and a homestead exemption. In connection with the execution proceedings, the City of Beatrice argued Meints was not entitled to exemptions because the execution related to criminal proceedings.
In an order dated January 16, 2018, the district court denied Meints' claim for exemptions. Following a hearing on Reinke’s motion to intervene and Meints' motion to quash the execution, the district court entered an order on February 23 which denied Reinke’s motion to intervene and overruled Meints' motion to quash. Meints timely appeals from the orders denying his request for exemptions and his motion to quash. Reinke did not appeal from the district court’s denial of her motion to intervene.
Meints assigns that the district court erred in denying Reinke’s motion to intervene, finding his property was not exempt from execution, and denying his motion to quash.
When dispositive issues on appeal present questions of law, an appellate court has an obligation to reach an independent conclusion irrespective of the decision made by the court below. State v. Jerke , 302 Neb. 372, 923 N.W.2d 78 (2019).
Meints first assigns that Reinke, his girlfriend, should have been permitted to intervene in the proceedings. In order for Meints to appeal a claim on behalf of Reinke, he first must have standing to do so.
Standing refers to whether a party had, at the commencement of the litigation, a personal stake in the outcome of the litigation that would warrant a court’s or tribunal’s exercising its jurisdiction and remedial powers on the party’s behalf. Applied Underwriters v. S.E.B. Servs. of New York , 297 Neb. 246, 898 N.W.2d 366 (2017). To have standing, a litigant must assert the litigant’s own rights and interests, and cannot rest a claim on the legal rights or interests of third parties. Id.
Reinke did not appeal from the court’s order denying her attempt to intervene. Because Meints is attempting to now litigate Reinke’s right to intervene, he is resting his claim on her rights. She could have chosen to appeal, but did not. Accordingly, Meints has no standing to assert Reinke’s rights and any assigned errors in connection therewith shall not be considered by this court.
Meints next assigns that the district court erred in overruling his motion to grant him certain exemptions in connection with the City of Beatrice’s attempt to execute on judgments involving his property. In support of his contention, Meints cites Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-1542 (Reissue 2016) of the rules governing executions on civil judgments, which rules entitle him to certain exemptions from execution, and argues that the judgments obtained against him are civil in nature.
In response, the City of Beatrice cites to Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-2407 (Reissue 2016), which at the pertinent time period provided:
Judgements for fines and costs in criminal cases shall be a lien upon all the property of the defendant within the county from the time of docketing the case by the clerk of the proper court, and judgments upon forfeited recognizance shall be a like lien from the time of forfeiture. No property of any convict shall be exempt from execution issued upon any such judgment as set out in this section against such convict except in cases when the convict is sentenced to a Department of Correctional Services adult correctional facility for a period of more than two years, in which cases there shall be the same exemptions as at the time may be provided by law for civil cases. The lien on real estate of any such judgment for costs shall terminate as provided in section 25-1716.
Accordingly, the issue of whether Meints was entitled to exemptions in connection with the execution on judgments involving his property turns on whether the proceedings against Meints were civil or criminal in nature.
In support of his argument that the proceedings against him were civil, Meints cites to McLaughlin v. State , 123 Neb. 861, 244 N.W. 799 (1932), disapproved on other grounds, State v. Amick , 173 Neb. 770, 114 N.W.2d 893 (1962). In McLauglin , the Nebraska Supreme Court noted:
But in Peterson v. State , 79 Neb. 132 , it was held: See Liberman [Leiberman ] v. State , 26 Neb. 464 [42 N.W. 419 (1889) ].
123 Neb. at 863, 244 N.W. at 799-800.
The specific issue in McLaughlin was whether keeping racetrack gambling devices in a place of business, which was prohibited by ordinance, was a civil or criminal proceeding, only the latter of which would have entitled the defendant to a jury trial. In finding no State counterpart to the city ordinance on harboring racetrack devices, the court held: "It is not argued, nor are we able to find, that keeping race track gambling devices, as in this case, is other than a violation of city ordinances, and, therefore, defendant was not entitled to a trial by a jury." McLaughlin , 123 Neb. at 863, 244 N.W. at 800.
Later cases support the rule espoused in McLauglin, supra . See, e.g., Warren v. State , 162 Neb. 623, 625, 76 N.W.2d 728, 730 (1956) ). As such, in order for us to determine whether Meints' violation of § 16-623 of the City of Beatrice’s code was a civil or criminal proceeding, we must determine whether the subject matter in § 16-623 is made criminal by the laws of the State of Nebraska.
In State v. Meints , 21 Neb.App. 805, 815, 844 N.W.2d 85, 94 (2014), the Court of Appeals quoted § 16-623, which at that time provided:
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