Beckner v. Urban - supplemental opinion, 310 Neb. 746

Parties: Brian Beckner (special fiduciary of the testamentary trust) and Janet Neujahr (personal representative of Lola R. Urban's estate) v. Richard D. Urban. Plaintiff sought ejectment; Richard appealed.
Property originally held under a land contract; Richard occupied the property and claimed he had paid sums due.
In 2001 Richard unequivocally repudiated Lola’s title by demanding the deed and asserting he had satisfied the contract.
From 2001 onward Richard openly, continuously, exclusively, and notoriously possessed and improved the property, using it as an owner.
Lola waited until 2018 to file the ejectment action. The Nebraska Supreme Court concluded Richard had met the 10-year adverse possession statutory period and the district court erred in ordering ejectment.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Richard acquired title by adverse possession	Plaintiffs argued Richard did not satisfy adverse possession because title arose from a land contract and plaintiffs retained rights	Richard argued he repudiated the contract in 2001 and then possessed the land adversely, meeting the 5 elements for 10 years	Yes. Court held repudiation in 2001 started adverse possession; Richard met actual, continuous, exclusive, notorious, and adverse possession for 10 years.
Whether ejectment was proper given the statute of limitations	Plaintiffs maintained ejectment was appropriate despite the contract history	Richard contended ejectment was time-barred because he had adversely possessed the property for the statutory period before suit	Court held ejectment was barred by the statute of limitations; district court erred in issuing ejectment.

Beckner v. Urban, 309 Neb. 677, 962 N.W.2d 497 (Neb. 2021) (prior opinion in this matter, modified on rehearing)
Brown v. Morello, 308 Neb. 968, 957 N.W.2d 884 (Neb. 2021) (sets out adverse possession elements and burden of proof)