§ 25-415.Choice of forum in another state; action pending in this state; procedure.

Section 25-414 addresses agreements pointing to Nebraska as the chosen forum; section 25-415 addresses the mirror image — an agreement in which the parties agreed in writing that any dispute would be litigated only in another state, and one party sues in Nebraska anyway.

In that situation, the general rule favors honoring the agreement: the Nebraska court will dismiss the action, or stay it if that is more appropriate, rather than deciding the dispute itself. But the section lists five circumstances in which a Nebraska court may proceed despite the parties’ agreement: a statute requires the Nebraska court to hear the case; the plaintiff cannot get effective relief in the other state, for reasons unrelated to delay in bringing the action; the other state would be a substantially less convenient place to try the case than Nebraska; the forum agreement itself was obtained through misrepresentation, duress, abuse of economic power, or other unconscionable means; or, more broadly, it would be unfair or unreasonable for some other reason to enforce the agreement.

That last, open-ended category gives Nebraska courts some room to decline enforcement of an out-of-state forum clause in a plainly unfair situation that the other four listed grounds do not squarely cover, without turning every forum-selection dispute into a fresh argument about convenience.