§ 25-21,185.Actions accruing before February 8, 1992, for injuries to person or property; contributory negligence; comparative negligence.

Section 25-21,185 preserves Nebraska’s older, "slight-gross" comparative negligence rule for cases that predate the modern comparative fault statute. It applies only to actions accruing before February 8, 1992, brought to recover for injury to a person or to property caused by another’s negligence, or by an act or omission giving rise to strict liability in tort.

Under that older rule, a plaintiff’s own contributory negligence does not automatically bar recovery. It bars recovery only if the comparison between the two sides tips against the plaintiff; when the plaintiff’s contributory negligence was slight and the defendant’s negligence, or act or omission giving rise to strict liability, was gross by comparison, the plaintiff may still recover. Even then, the jury reduces the damages awarded in proportion to the plaintiff’s share of the fault, so a plaintiff who recovers under this standard still absorbs part of the loss corresponding to the plaintiff’s own contributory negligence.

The statute leaves all of this, including whether the negligence was slight or gross and how negligence and contributory negligence compare, to the jury. For actions accruing on or after February 8, 1992, this slight-gross framework no longer applies; those cases fall instead under the modified comparative negligence scheme in sections 25-21,185.07 through 25-21,185.12.