Ginger Cove Common Area Co. v. Wiekhorst, 296 Neb. 416

Ginger Cove sued Wiekhorst for unpaid annual assessments; Wiekhorst filed a counterclaim alleging breach of fiduciary duty.
The case was dismissed for lack of prosecution on Sept 29, 2015, then motions to reinstate and for discovery sanctions were filed around Oct 1–5, 2015.
On Oct 6, 2015, the court found Wiekhorst in contempt and struck his counterclaim as a discovery sanction; the case was later dismissed and subsequently reinstated again in December 2015.
Wiekhorst moved on Jan 14, 2016 to vacate the sanctions; the court denied that motion on Feb 19, 2016.
After a bench trial, the court entered final judgment against Wiekhorst on Apr 20, 2016; Wiekhorst appealed on May 20, 2016, assigning error to the denial of his motion to vacate sanctions.
The core factual dispute on appeal concerned whether Wiekhorst received proper notice of the motions/hearings that led to the sanctions while the case was briefly dismissed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the October 2015 sanctions order or the Feb 2016 denial of the motion to vacate were final for purposes of timely appeal	Ginger Cove: Neither order was final; any challenge could be raised on appeal from the final judgment	Wiekhorst: He effectively challenged the Feb 2016 order and would have had to appeal it sooner if final	Court: Both orders were interlocutory; they did not affect a substantial right and were reviewable on timely appeal from the final judgment
Whether the district court abused discretion / denied due process by refusing to vacate the sanctions for lack of notice	Wiekhorst: He lacked timely notice of the reinstatement and sanctions hearings while the case was dismissed, so sanctions should be vacated	Ginger Cove: The sanctions order recites that proper notice was given; the record does not show otherwise	Court: No abuse of discretion—appellant failed to produce evidence contradicting the trial court record; journal entry imports verity and absence of bill of exceptions precludes reversal

Deines v. Essex Corp., 293 Neb. 577, 879 N.W.2d 30 (applicability of final-order standards and substantial-rights analysis)
Big John’s Billiards v. State, 283 Neb. 496, 811 N.W.2d 205 (avoiding piecemeal appeals; need for final orders)
Furstenfeld v. Pepin, 287 Neb. 12, 840 N.W.2d 862 (discovery orders generally not subject to interlocutory appeal)
Cattle Nat. Bank & Trust Co. v. Watson, 293 Neb. 943, 880 N.W.2d 906 (when an order does or does not dispose of the whole merits)
State v. Deckard, 272 Neb. 410, 722 N.W.2d 55 (journal entry of trial court imports verity)
Pierce v. Landmark Mgmt. Group, 293 Neb. 890, 880 N.W.2d 885 (appellant’s duty to present a record supporting assigned errors)