§ 25-328.Intervention; right; procedure.

Section 25-328 is Nebraska’s general intervention statute, and its language covers a lot of ground. Any person who has or claims an interest in the matter in litigation, in the success of either party, or against both parties, may become a party to an action pending or about to be brought in any Nebraska court. That broad standing language reaches well beyond the narrower, property-specific intervention right in section 25-324, covering anyone with a genuine stake in how the case comes out, not only people with an interest in specific property at issue.

The statute describes three ways to intervene. A person can join the plaintiff, claiming what the plaintiff is seeking in the complaint. A person can unite with the defendants, resisting the plaintiff’s claim alongside them. Or a person can stake out an independent position, demanding something adversely to both the plaintiff and the defendant — a genuine third position in the case rather than an alliance with either existing side.

Timing matters here. Intervention can happen either before or after issue has been joined in the case — meaning either before or after the pleadings have framed the dispute — but it has to happen before the trial commences. Once trial starts, the window to intervene under this section closes. Sections 25-329 and 25-330 fill out the rest of the intervention process: how an intervenor’s claim gets pleaded and decided, and what happens to costs if the intervention does not succeed.