OMAHA, Neb.—The Nebraska Supreme Court says it can’t rule on an appeal in the case of an 87-year-old Omaha woman who worked thousands of hours for the state without being paid.
In an opinion Friday, the court said mistakes in Douglas County District Court mean the judge’s ruling against the state isn’t final, and therefore can’t be appealed.
Lucille Kilgore spent nearly 30 years typing reports, arranging foster home placements and handling other duties as a volunteer at the state’s juvenile parole office.
She was never paid nor asked to be paid for her work.
But in 2004, she sued the state and juvenile parole personnel, alleging she was taken advantage of and overworked. The judge awarded her $447,005.
The state appealed, arguing that Kilgore was a volunteer, not an employee, and therefore not entitled to such relief.
The state Supreme Court didn’t rule on the arguments, instead saying that the lower court didn’t rule on all the issues before it, including whether Kilgore was entitled to attorney fees. Also, the district court judge’s 2008 written order only refers to two of the four defendants.
The appeal was dismissed, with the court saying “we lack jurisdiction over this appeal.”
Kilgore began working on a volunteer, part-time basis for the office in 1974 alongside juvenile parole officer Melvin Washington, according to court documents. She took on more work over the years until the mid-1990s, when health problems forced her to work from home. The work continued until 2002.
From the beginning, Kilgore wanted to be a parole officer, despite being told she didn’t have the qualifications. She described her ambitions as like those of a walk-on football player for the Nebraska Cornhuskers—that if she got accepted as a walk-on she might eventually be placed on scholarship.
Kilgore said she became afraid of Washington and his temper beginning in the late 1990s.
She lived by herself, had no children and came to depend on the help of parole officers who took up food collections for her or helped get her to doctors’ appointments, said her attorney, Ray Aranza.
State officials argue Kilgore never expected to be hired.
She never applied for a job and could have quit at any time, the state argued.
Kilgore cross-appealed, saying the lower court must address Kilgore’s claims of negligence. The state failed to properly supervise its employees and failed to intervene to protect Kilgore from being exploited, and those issues still need to be tried, he said.
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