Ehlers v. Perry
| Decision Date | 15 January 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. S-89-1490,S-89-1490 |
| Citation | 494 N.W.2d 325,242 Neb. 208 |
| Parties | Alan G. EHLERS et al., Appellees, v. Cecil Lee PERRY, Appellee and Cross-Appellant, State of Nebraska, Department of Social Services, Appellee and Cross-Appellee, City of Lincoln, Doing Business as Lincoln General Hospital, Appellant, and Dan L. McCord, Intervenor-Appellee. |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. Equity: Claims: Property. Interpleader is an equitable proceeding for determination of adverse claims by rival claimants to the same property or fund held by a third person as a stakeholder.
2. Claims: Property. Interpleader is based on the theory that adverse claimants should litigate between or among themselves their conflicting rights or claims to property or a fund, without involving the stakeholder who, disclaiming any interest in the property or fund, has, in good faith, offered to deliver, or has delivered, the property to a court or has deposited the money in the court's registry.
3. Claims: Property: Liability. The function or purpose of interpleader is to protect a disinterested person, as a stakeholder, against conflicting claims to property or a fund and to avoid the stakeholder's exposure to multiple liability or a multiplicity of suits.
4. Equity: Claims: Property: Liability. The equitable remedy of interpleader requires that (1) the same property or fund is subject to adverse titles or rival claims by at least two parties to the proceedings; (2) all adverse titles or rival claims must be based on or depend on, or be derived from, a common source; (3) the person who seeks relief by interpleader has neither an interest in nor a claim against the subject property or fund and, as a stakeholder, is legally disinterested in claims against the property or fund; (4) the stakeholder must have incurred no independent liability to the claimants; and (5) the stakeholder has delivered the property to a court or offers to deliver the property to a court, deposit the money into the court's registry, or otherwise dispose of the property or fund as the court may direct.
5. Waiver: Words and Phrases. A waiver is the voluntary and intentional relinquishment of a known right, privilege, or claim and may be demonstrated by or inferred from a person's conduct.
6. Liens: Words and Phrases. A lien is a right afforded by law to have an obligation satisfied out of particular property.
7. Liens. A lien does not displace a prior right or prior equities that are superior.
8. Assignments: Words and Phrases. An assignment is a transfer vesting in the assignee all the assignor's rights in property which is the subject of the assignment.
9. Assignments: Liens. An assignment transfers to an assignee only the rights of the assignor; thus, if the assigned property is subject to a lien, the assignee takes the assigned property subject to the lien.
10. Assignments: Consideration: Gifts. Unless a transfer by an assignment is a gift, an assignment is effective only when supported by valid consideration.
11. Contracts: Assignments: Gifts. As in the ordinary case of a contract, an assignment, other than a gift, requires a benefit to the assignor or a detriment to the assignee.
12. Trial: Stipulations: Parties: Attorneys at Law. A stipulation, entered by parties to a proceeding or by their attorneys within the scope of authority for representation of the parties, establishes the fact or facts stipulated and binds the parties in the proceeding.
13. Health Care Providers: Liens. A hospital lien under Neb.Rev.Stat. § 52-401 (Reissue 1988) attaches on a patient's admission to the hospital for treatment.
14. Statutes. If a statute is susceptible to more than one reasonable construction, a court uses the construction that will achieve the statute's purpose and preserve the statute's validity.
15. Health Care Providers: Liens: Assignments. The statutory assignment to the Department of Social Services of Nebraska under Neb.Rev.Stat. § 68-1026 (Reissue 1990) is subject to a valid hospital lien acquired under Neb.Rev.Stat. § 52-401 (Reissue 1988) when the hospital lien exists before the Department of Social Services obligates itself to pay, or pays, medical assistance benefits pursuant to an application under § 68-1026.
16. Subrogation: Words and Phrases. Subrogation is substitution of one person who is not a volunteer, a subrogee, for another, a subrogor, as the result of the subrogee's payment of a debt owed to the subrogor so that the subrogee succeeds to the subrogor's right to recover the amount paid by the subrogee.
17. Subrogation: Liability. To be entitled to subrogation, one must pay a debt for which another is liable.
Linda W. Rohman, of Erickson & Sederstrom, P.C., Lincoln, for appellant.
Dan L. McCord, Lincoln, for appellee Perry.
Robert M. Spire, Atty. Gen., Royce N. Harper, and Wynn Clemmer, Lincoln, for appellee Dept. of Social Services.
The City of Lincoln, doing business as Lincoln General Hospital (LGH), appeals from the judgment of the district court for Seward County in an interpleader action concerning proceeds from settlement of a negligence claim covered by a policy of automobile liability insurance issued by Battle Creek Mutual Insurance Company to Alan G. Ehlers.
Nebraska's interpleader statute, Neb.Rev.Stat. § 25-325 (Reissue 1989), states:
Upon the affidavit of a defendant, before answer in an action upon contract or for the recovery of personal property, that some third party, without collusion with him, has or makes a claim to the subject of the action, and that he is ready to pay or dispose of the same as the court may direct, the court may make an order for the safekeeping, or for the payment, or deposit in court ... and an order requiring such third party to appear in a reasonable time and maintain or relinquish his claim against the defendant.... If such third party appear, he shall be allowed to make himself defendant in the action in lieu of the original defendant, who shall be discharged from all liability to either of the other parties in respect to the subject of the action, upon his compliance with the order of the court for the payment, deposit or delivery thereof.
Interpleader is an equitable proceeding for determination of adverse claims by rival claimants to the same property or fund held by a third person as a stakeholder. See Klaber v. Maryland Casualty Co., 69 F.2d 934 (8th Cir.1934).
Interpleader is based on the theory that adverse claimants should litigate between or among themselves their conflicting rights or claims to property or a fund without involving the stakeholder who, disclaiming any interest in the property or fund, has, in good faith, offered to deliver, or has delivered, the property to a court or has deposited the money in the court's registry. See, Klaber v. Maryland Casualty Co., supra; United Benefit Life Insurance Company v. Katz, 155 F.Supp. 391 (E.D.Pa.1957).
The function or purpose of interpleader is to protect a disinterested person, as a stakeholder, against conflicting claims to property or a fund and to avoid the stakeholder's exposure to multiple liability or a multiplicity of suits. Texas v. Florida, 306 U.S. 398, 59 S.Ct. 563, 83 L.Ed. 817 (1939); National Fire Ins. Co. v. Sanders, 38 F.2d 212 (5th Cir.1930); First State Bank v. Citizens State Bank, 10 F.R.D. 424 (D.Neb.1950); United Benefit Life Insurance Company v. Katz, supra.
The equitable remedy of interpleader requires that (1) the same property or fund is subject to adverse titles or rival claims by at least two parties to the proceedings; (2) all adverse titles or rival claims must be based on or depend on, or be derived from, a common source; (3) the person who seeks relief by interpleader has neither an interest in nor a claim against the subject property or fund and, as a stakeholder, is legally disinterested in claims against the property or fund; (4) the stakeholder must have incurred no independent liability to the claimants; and (5) the stakeholder has delivered the property to a court or offers to deliver the property to a court, deposit the money into the court's registry, or otherwise dispose of the property or fund as the court may direct. See, Strasser v. Commercial Nat. Bank, 157 Neb. 570, 60 N.W.2d 672 (1953); Citizens Nat. Bank of Wisner v. McNamara, 120 Neb. 252, 231 N.W. 781 (1930); Farming Corporation v. Bridgeport Bank, 113 Neb. 323, 202 N.W. 911 (1925).
In an appeal of an equity action, an appellate court tries factual questions de novo on the record and reaches a conclusion independent of the findings of the trial court; provided, where credible evidence is in conflict on a material issue of fact, an appellate court considers and may give weight to the fact that the trial judge heard and observed the witnesses and accepted one version of the facts rather than another.
Chambers-Dobson, Inc. v. Squier, 238 Neb. 748, 750, 472 N.W.2d 391, 395 (1991). Accord, Gottsch v. Bank of Stapleton, 235 Neb. 816, 458 N.W.2d 443 (1990); Frenzen v. Taylor, 232 Neb. 41, 439 N.W.2d 473 (1989); Hughes v. Enterprise Irrigation Dist., 226 Neb. 230, 410 N.W.2d 494 (1987); Newton v. Brown, 222 Neb. 605, 386 N.W.2d 424 (1986).
"Regarding a question of law, an appellate court has an obligation to reach a conclusion independent from a trial court's conclusion in a judgment under review." Huffman v. Huffman, 232 Neb. 742, 748, 441 N.W.2d 899, 904 (1989). Accord, Maack v. School Dist. of Lincoln, 241 Neb. 847, 491 N.W.2d 341 (1992); Albee v. Maverick Media, Inc., 239 Neb. 60, 474 N.W.2d 238 (1991); Lutheran Medical Center v. City of Omaha, 229 Neb. 802, 429 N.W.2d 347 (1988); Boisen v. Petersen Flying Serv., 222 Neb. 239, 383 N.W.2d 29 (1986).
The facts and documentary evidence were stipulated by the parties.
Perry's Admission...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State ex rel. Grape v. Zach
...the reviewing court uses the construction that will achieve the statute's purpose and preserve the statute's validity. Ehlers v. Perry, 242 Neb. 208, 494 N.W.2d 325 (1993). Thus, if the portions of § § 43-1206 and 43-1207 at issue merely recommend that a judge engage in certain communicatio......
-
Shelter Ins. Companies v. Frohlich
...the subrogor so that the subrogee succeeds to the subrogor's right to recover the amount paid by the subrogee." Ehlers v. Perry, 242 Neb. 208, 221, 494 N.W.2d 325, 334 (1993). Generally, " ' " '[s]ubrogation is the right of one, who has paid an obligation which another should have paid, to ......
-
Lemke v. Metropolitan Utilities Dist.
...Dist., 242 Neb. 783, 496 N.W.2d 902 (1993); Sports Courts of Omaha v. Meginnis, 242 Neb. 768, 497 N.W.2d 38 (1993); Ehlers v. Perry, 242 Neb. 208, 494 N.W.2d 325 (1993). Performance or nonperformance of a discretionary function cannot be the basis for liability under the Political Subdivisi......
-
Guardianship and Conservatorship of Bloomquist, In re
...independent of that of the trial court. Kopecky v. National Farms, Inc., 244 Neb. 846, 510 N.W.2d 41 (1994); Ehlers v. Perry, 242 Neb. 208, 494 N.W.2d 325 (1993). HOSPITAL LIEN The underlying goal of a hospital lien statute is to lessen the burden on hospitals and other medical providers im......