Nebraska Supreme Court Online Library www.nebraska.gov/apps-courts-epub/ 09/09/2022 08:05 AM CDT - 405 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 312 Nebraska Reports DUTCHER V. NEBRASKA DEPT. OF CORR. SERVS. Cite as 312 Neb. 405 Suzette D. Dutcher, appellant, v. Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, appellee. ___ N.W.2d ___ Filed September 9, 2022. No. S-21-740. 1. Summary Judgment: Appeal and Error. An appellate court affirms a lower court’s grant of summary judgment if the pleadings and admitted evidence show that there is no genuine issue as to any material facts or as to the ultimate inferences that may be drawn from the facts and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. 2. ____: ____. In reviewing a summary judgment, an appellate court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom the judgment was granted, and gives that party the benefit of all reasonable inferences deducible from the evidence. 3. Judgments: Appeal and Error. Statutory interpretation is a question of law. When reviewing questions of law, an appellate court has an obliga- tion to resolve the questions independently of the conclusion reached by the trial court. 4. Workers’ Compensation: Jurisdiction: Legislature. As a statutorily created court, it is the role of the Legislature to determine what acts fall within the Workers’ Compensation Court’s exclusive jurisdiction. 5. Workers’ Compensation: Legislature. The Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act creates rights which did not exist at common law, and the Legislature may place such restrictions thereon as it sees fit. 6. Statutes. Statutes relating to the same subject matter are to be construed together so as to maintain a consistent and sensible scheme. 7. ____. Statutory interpretation begins with the text, and the text is to be given its plain and ordinary meaning. 8. Statutes: Legislature. It is a fundamental canon of statutory construc- tion that words generally should be interpreted as taking their ordinary meaning at the time the Legislature enacted the statute. - 406 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 312 Nebraska Reports DUTCHER V. NEBRASKA DEPT. OF CORR. SERVS. Cite as 312 Neb. 405 9. ____: ____. When the Legislature uses legal terms of art in statutes, such terms should be construed and understood according to their accepted legal meaning. 10. Statutes: Appeal and Error. An appellate court will not resort to inter- pretation of statutory language to ascertain the meaning of words which are plain, direct, and unambiguous. 11. ____: ____. An appellate court is not at liberty to add language to the plain terms of a statute to restrict its meaning. 12. Statutes: Courts: Appeal and Error. An appellate court does not sit as a superlegislature to review the wisdom of legislative acts. 13. Fair Employment Practices: Discrimination: Intent. Employment dis- crimination laws such as those found in the Nebraska Fair Employment Practice Act have not vested in the Nebraska courts the authority to sit as super personnel departments reviewing the wisdom or fairness of the business judgments made by employers, except …
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