## Facts

- A landlord and tenant entered a 50-year commercial lease for downtown premises.
- The lease required the tenant to pay periodic rent and also to pay real estate taxes and insurance on the property.
- The lease contained no acceleration clause authorizing the landlord to declare future installments immediately due upon default.
- After the tenant stopped paying rent, taxes, and insurance, the landlord sued and obtained a first judgment limited to sums that had accrued as of that judgment.
- The tenant continued not to pay after the first judgment.
- In a second action, the landlord sought (1) newly accrued unpaid amounts and (2) a mechanism to collect future installments without filing successive lawsuits.
- The trial court awarded the newly accrued amounts and also purported to retain continuing jurisdiction so that, as each future installment came due, the judgment would “mature” for that installment and execution could issue without a new action.
- The tenant appealed only the portion of the second judgment addressing future installments and continuing jurisdiction.

## Issues

1. Whether, absent an acceleration clause, a court may enter a judgment that effectively reaches and enforces future, unmatured lease installments as they later become due.
2. Whether a trial court may retain continuing jurisdiction to allow execution to issue automatically for later defaults on installments not yet due at the time of judgment.

## Decision

- The court affirmed the award for rent, taxes, and insurance installments that were accrued and due at the time of the second judgment.
- The court reversed or vacated the portion of the judgment purporting to cover future, unmatured installments.
- The court disapproved the trial court’s retention of continuing jurisdiction and the automatic “maturation” mechanism permitting execution for future installments without a new action.

## Legal Principles

- In the absence of an acceleration clause or other contractual basis making future installments presently due, liability for installments cannot be reduced to judgment before the installments accrue.
- Each installment obligation under a lease (including rent, taxes, and insurance payable in installments) generally gives rise to a separate cause of action only when that installment becomes due and remains unpaid.
- A court’s judgment must rest on matured obligations and existing facts at the time of judgment; it cannot assume future liability and authorize execution for later installments without renewed judicial proceedings.
- A trial court may not circumvent limits on judgments for unmatured obligations by retaining open-ended jurisdiction to convert future installments into enforceable judgment amounts over time.

## Conclusion

The court held that, without an acceleration clause, the landlord could recover only those lease installments that had accrued and were unpaid, and the trial court lacked authority to issue a continuing judgment that would automatically become enforceable for future installments as they came due.


First Nat'l Bank of Omaha v. Omaha Nat'l Bank, 214 N.W.2d 483 (Neb. 1974)