In re Estate of Weeder, 16 N.W.3d 137

Richard Muller filed a claim against the estate of John Weeder, based on a pre-death judgment involving a fence dispute.
Margene Cork was appointed as personal representative of the estate in October 2017; the estate remained open at all relevant times.
Muller’s claim, supported by the judgment, was formally submitted to probate in December 2017 and later followed by a petition for allowance in 2023.
The county court held a hearing and allowed Muller’s claim against the estate.
The estate appealed, arguing lack of subject matter jurisdiction and misapplication of the law-of-the-case doctrine.
The Nebraska Supreme Court reviewed the jurisdictional and procedural challenges raised on appeal.

Issue	Muller's Argument	Estate's Argument	Held
Subject matter jurisdiction	County court has probate jurisdiction	Only Court of Appeals had jurisdiction due to the prior fence dispute appeal	County court had exclusive probate jurisdiction
Law-of-the-case doctrine	Not applicable, different actions	Prior fence dispute appeal controls this probate action	Law-of-the-case did not apply to this probate
Factual sufficiency (bill of exceptions)	Issue not directly raised	Insufficient record; missing exhibits may impact review	Presumption favors county court's finding
Effect of prior judgment/revivor	Probate procedure appropriate	Judgment unenforceable without revivor post-death	Probate claim was correctly allowed

Rich v. Cooper, 136 Neb. 463 (judgment creditor's efforts post-death of debtor requires appropriate probate process)
In re Estate of Baer, 273 Neb. 969 (appellant's burden to provide complete record on appeal)
In re Estate of Adelung, 306 Neb. 646 (county court's exclusive probate jurisdiction)
State v. Betancourt-Garcia, 317 Neb. 174 (law-of-the-case doctrine precludes relitigation of settled issues in the same suit)