§ 25-1332.Motion for summary judgment; proceedings.

Section 25-1332 is Nebraska’s core summary judgment standard. Subsection (1) sets the procedural frame: the motion must be served at least ten days before the hearing, and the adverse party may serve opposing affidavits any time before the hearing date. The court renders judgment “forthwith” — without further delay — if the pleadings and the evidence admitted at the hearing show there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The evidence a court may weigh on the motion is not limited to affidavits; it includes depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions, and stipulations as well. Summary judgment does not have to resolve the whole case at once — a court may grant interlocutory summary judgment on liability alone, even while a genuine dispute over the amount of damages remains for trial.

Subsection (2) tells the parties how to carry their burdens once the motion is on file. A party who asserts that a fact cannot be, or is not, subject to genuine dispute has to back that assertion up — either by citing particular parts of the record (depositions, interrogatory answers, admissions, stipulations, affidavits, or other materials), or by showing that the other side’s cited materials do not establish the presence or absence of a genuine dispute, or that the other side cannot produce admissible evidence to support the fact.

Subsection (3) gives the court a menu of options when a party falls short of that standard — failing to properly support its own factual assertion, or failing to properly address the other party’s. The court can give the party a chance to fix the problem, treat the unsupported or unaddressed fact as undisputed for purposes of the motion, grant summary judgment if the motion and the now-undisputed facts show the movant is entitled to it, or issue whatever other order is appropriate.

Together, these three subsections describe both the standard for summary judgment and the mechanics parties use to meet it — precise citations to the record, a chance to fix a defective factual showing, and a court that can act on facts left uncontested rather than waiting for a party to properly dispute them.