§ 25-21,219.Forcible entry and detainer; jurisdiction; exceptions.

Section 25-21,219 opens Nebraska’s forcible entry and detainer statute, the framework courts use to resolve two related problems with possession of land. The district and county courts have jurisdiction over complaints of unlawful and forcible entry into land or tenements and the detention that follows, and over complaints against someone who entered lawfully and peaceably but now holds the property unlawfully and by force. Both scenarios end up in the same court with the same remedy available.

When the court finds either an unlawful and forcible entry, or an unlawful holding after a lawful entry, it orders restitution — putting the complaining party back in possession. The same proceeding also resolves the money side of the dispute: the court or jury inquires into how much rent the defendant owes the plaintiff and how much damage the defendant caused to the premises while occupying them, and renders judgment or a verdict covering both possession and those amounts.

This section, and the sections that follow it, do not reach every landlord-tenant dispute. It does not apply to actions for possession of premises covered by the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act or the Mobile Home Landlord and Tenant Act — the statutes that govern most ordinary residential and mobile-home tenancies. That leaves this forcible entry and detainer framework for possession disputes those two acts do not reach.