## Facts

- The State filed a juvenile petition alleging 13-year-old D.W. was within Neb. Rev. Stat. § 43-247(3)(b) for conduct endangering morals or health.
- D.W. was adjudicated under § 43-247(3)(b) and later placed at Boys Town; after completion, he was placed in his paternal grandmother’s home.
- D.W.’s 3-year-old sister remained in the parents’ custody and was not the subject of any juvenile petition or adjudication.
- D.W.’s guardian ad litem requested an order requiring sibling visitation between D.W. and his sister.
- The parents objected, asserting visitation was not in the sister’s best interests.
- The juvenile court ordered the parents to make the sister available for one hour of supervised visitation per month; after no visits occurred, it entered a follow-up order requiring compliance.

## Issues

1. Whether a juvenile court with jurisdiction over an adjudicated child may order parents to produce a non-adjudicated sibling for visitation when that sibling has not been brought under the court’s jurisdiction.
2. Whether an appellate court must consider lack of subject matter jurisdiction on its own motion despite the parties’ failure to assign it as error.

## Decision

- The Nebraska Supreme Court reversed.
- The court held the juvenile court lacked jurisdiction over the sister and therefore lacked authority to order the parents to make her available for visitation.
- The court remanded with directions to vacate the juvenile court’s visitation order, notwithstanding that the parents had not assigned jurisdictional error in the Court of Appeals.

## Legal Principles

- Juvenile court jurisdiction under the Nebraska Juvenile Code is limited to children who are properly brought before the court through petition and adjudication; jurisdiction over one child does not extend to unadjudicated siblings.
- A juvenile court’s broad remedial authority in the adjudicated child’s best interests cannot override jurisdictional limits or authorize interference with parental control over a child not within the court’s jurisdiction.
- Appellate courts have an independent duty to examine jurisdiction; when lack of jurisdiction in the lower tribunal appears from the record, the reviewing court must raise and decide it sua sponte, even if not assigned as error.

## Conclusion

Because the sister was never made a juvenile court subject through petition and adjudication, the juvenile court had no jurisdiction over her and could not compel the parents to produce her for sibling visitation; the visitation order was vacated on further review due to the jurisdictional defect.


In re Interest of D.W., 249 Neb. 133, 542 N.W.2d 407 (Neb. 1996)