00-2180 Industry to Industry, Inc. v. Hillsman Modular Molding, Inc.

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“If the legislature wanted to ensure that corporations would not be included, it could have used the term ‘natural person’ rather than ‘person.’ If the legislature intended to use the term ‘natural person”in Wis. Stat. § 134.93(1)(b), we believe that it would have done so. We, therefore, agree with the court of appeals’ conclusion: ‘Thus, with knowledge of the definition of “person” in § 990.01(26), we presume that in utilizing “person,” the legislature intended for a “person” in § 134.93 to include corporations.’

“Although we base our decision here on the clear and unambiguous language of the statute itself, we find further support for our conclusion that the term ‘person’ in Wis. Stat. § 134.93 unambiguously includes corporations when we consider the use of the term ‘person’ in the entire statute….

“Excluding corporations would lead to an absurd result and ‘it would make little if any sense to enact legislation benefitting the sales representative as an individual, but deny him coverage if he chooses to do business in accordance with an exceedingly common form of enterprise: the corporation.'”

Judgment of the Court of Appeals is, therefore, affirmed.

Court of Appeals; Crooks, J.

Attorneys:

For Appellant: Stephen L. Fox, Brookfield

For Respondent: David H. Hutchinson, New Berlin