Article 21: Special Proceedings and Actions · Not amended since original codification · Last verified July 22, 2026
R.S.1867, Code § 645, p. 507; R.S.1913, § 8271; C.S.1922, § 9224; C.S.1929, § 20-2156; R.S.1943, § 25-2156.
To compel public corporations to pay judgment, see section 77-1623.
Section 25-2156 opens Nebraska’s statutory treatment of mandamus, a writ used to force action rather than to decide who is right. It may be issued to any inferior tribunal, corporation, board, or person, to compel the performance of an act that the law specifically enjoins as a duty resulting from an office, trust, or station.
The section builds in an important limit. The writ can require an inferior tribunal to exercise its judgment, or to proceed to the discharge of one of its functions, but it cannot control judicial discretion. A court can order a tribunal to act; it cannot use mandamus to dictate how that tribunal must rule once it does.
A cross-referenced statute, section 77-1623, extends this same tool to compelling public corporations to pay a judgment entered against them, showing how mandamus reaches beyond individual officeholders to entities with public duties.
To compel an inferior tribunal, corporation, board, or person to perform an act that the law specifically makes a duty tied to an office, trust, or station.
No. The writ can require a tribunal to exercise its judgment or proceed to discharge a function, but it cannot control judicial discretion.
Any inferior tribunal, corporation, board, or person — the writ is not limited to courts.
No. It compels performance of a duty; it does not dictate the discretionary outcome once the duty holder acts.
Only for a duty the law specifically enjoins as resulting from an office, trust, or station, and only where no adequate remedy at law exists, as addressed in 25-2157.
Yes. The section covers corporations and boards along with tribunals and individual persons.