In re Interest of Mekhi S., 309 Neb. 529

In Sept. 2016 the State petitioned the juvenile court; several children were adjudicated and two (MyJhae and Zaniya) had a permanency objective of legal guardianship.
In June 2017 the court appointed a guardian for those two children and expressly retained juvenile-court jurisdiction to review or modify the guardianship.
The court held periodic guardianship review hearings; the State participated in those reviews.
In Sept. 2020 the guardian ad litem moved to terminate the guardianship; the court terminated it and placed the children in DHHS custody.
The next day the State filed a supplemental (second) petition under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 43-247(8) seeking to reestablish juvenile-court jurisdiction and to obtain appropriate orders (including possible support); the GAL moved to dismiss, arguing the court never lost jurisdiction.
The juvenile court dismissed the State’s second petition; the State appealed, and the Nebraska Supreme Court dismissed the appeal for lack of appellate jurisdiction because the dismissal did not substantially affect the State’s substantial rights.

Issue	State's Argument	GAL/Juvenile Court's Argument	Held
Whether dismissal of the State’s second petition is a final, appealable order because it affected a substantial right	§ 43-247(8) required a new petition to reestablish jurisdiction after guardianship termination; dismissal prevented the State from reasserting jurisdiction	The juvenile court had never lost jurisdiction (it had retained jurisdiction under the guardianship order and § 43-1312.01(3)); dismissal did not finally affect the State’s rights	Dismissal was not a final, appealable order; State’s substantial rights were not substantially affected, so the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction and dismissed the appeal
Whether § 43-247(8) required the State to file a second petition to reinstate juvenile-court jurisdiction after termination of a guardianship	§ 43-247(8) provides an independent basis to reestablish jurisdiction and thus required filing the second petition	§ 43-247(8) applies where jurisdiction had ended; here the court had expressly retained jurisdiction under § 43-1312.01(3) and prior juvenile-court decisions, so § 43-247(8) was inapplicable	§ 43-247(8) was misapplied by the State; it was unnecessary where the juvenile court had retained jurisdiction under the guardianship order and statute

Great Northern Ins. Co. v. Transit Auth. of Omaha, 308 Neb. 916 (appellate-rule context for assignment-of-error/plain-error review)
In re Interest of Zachary B., 299 Neb. 187 (jurisdictional questions in juvenile appeals resolved as matters of law)
In re Interest of Michael N., 302 Neb. 652 (final-order requirements for appellate jurisdiction)
In re Interest of Noah B. et al., 295 Neb. 764 (test whether an order affects a substantial right/finality standard)
Deines v. Essex Corp., 293 Neb. 577 (definition of when an order affects a substantial right)
In re Guardianship of Rebecca B. et al., 260 Neb. 922 (juvenile court retains jurisdiction over guardianship matters)
In re Interest of Brianna B., 21 Neb. App. 657 (Court of Appeals explanation that juvenile court retains jurisdiction during guardianship)