Nebraska Supreme Court Online Library www.nebraska.gov/apps-courts-epub/ 01/14/2020 09:06 AM CST - 969 - Nebraska Court of Appeals Advance Sheets 27 Nebraska Appellate Reports DE MATEO v. MATEO-CRISTOBAL Cite as 27 Neb. App. 969 Maura Alonzo-Baltazar De Mateo, appellant, v. Mateo N. Mateo-Cristobal, appellee. ___ N.W.2d ___ Filed January 14, 2020. No. A-19-351. 1. Statutes. Statutory interpretation presents a question of law. 2. Jurisdiction: Appeal and Error. Before reaching the legal issues presented for review, it is the duty of an appellate court to determine whether it has jurisdiction over the matter before it. 3. ____: ____. An appellate court has a duty to determine whether it has jurisdiction over the matter before it irrespective of whether the issue of jurisdiction was raised or considered by the district court. 4. Appeal and Error. Plain error is error plainly evident from the record and of such a nature that to leave it uncorrected would result in damage to the integrity, reputation, or fairness of the judicial process. 5. Courts: Jurisdiction: Child Custody: Federal Acts. Courts with juris- diction over an “initial child custody determination” as that term is used in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 43-1238(a) (Cum. Supp. 2018) also have jurisdic- tion and authority to make special findings of fact similar to those con- templated by 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(J) (2018). 6. Child Custody: Words and Phrases. “Child custody proceeding” is defined under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 43-1227(4) (Reissue 2016) as a proceed- ing in which legal custody, physical custody, or visitation with respect to a child is an issue and includes a proceeding for divorce in which the issue of custody or visitation may appear. 7. Appeal and Error. An appellate court will not consider an issue on appeal that was not passed upon by the trial court. Appeal from the District Court for Douglas County: Duane C. Dougherty, Judge. Reversed and remanded for further proceedings. - 970 - Nebraska Court of Appeals Advance Sheets 27 Nebraska Appellate Reports DE MATEO v. MATEO-CRISTOBAL Cite as 27 Neb. App. 969 William P. Crawford, of Kendall Law Office, P.C., L.L.O., for appellant. No appearance for appellee. Pirtle, Riedmann, and Welch, Judges. Riedmann, Judge. INTRODUCTION Maura Alonzo-Baltazar De Mateo (De Mateo) appeals the order of the district court for Douglas County which denied her request to make certain special findings related to her chil- dren’s eligibility to apply for special immigrant juvenile (SIJ) status under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(J) (2018). As explained below, we reverse, and remand for further proceedings. BACKGROUND On June 13, 2018, De Mateo filed a complaint for dissolu- tion of her marriage to Mateo N. Mateo-Cristobal and an order awarding her custody of the parties’ children. The complaint alleged that the parties had married in 2010 in Guatemala and that at the time of filing, De Mateo was living in Douglas County, Nebraska, and the whereabouts of Mateo-Cristobal were unknown. De Mateo sought to serve Mateo-Cristobal by publication and simultaneously filed an affidavit in support of her motion for service ...
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