§ 25-1903.Petition in error; filing; summons; contents; service, when returnable; cause, when triable.

Once a party has a qualifying final order under section 25-1902, section 25-1903 describes how to start the challenge. The proceeding is begun by a petition entitled “petition in error,” filed in the court with power to reverse, vacate, or modify the order below, and it must set out the errors the plaintiff in error is complaining of. Filing the petition triggers issuance of a summons, which is served — or published, if service cannot be made directly — the same way a summons commences an ordinary action. Serving the attorney who represented the party in the original case is enough; a separate service on the party is not required.

The summons has to tell the adverse party that a petition in error naming a specific case has been filed, and its return date depends on when it issues relative to the court’s term. A summons issued during a court vacation is returnable on or before the first day of the next term, if issued at least twenty days before that term begins; one issued during term time, or within twenty days of the next term, names its own return date. In the Supreme Court, a case docketed twenty days or more before the next term stands for hearing that term; if less than twenty days remain, the case does not stand for trial until the second following term unless the parties agree otherwise, apart from cases the court is hearing under its original jurisdiction.