Debtor-Creditor — supplemental proceedings

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Wisconsin Supreme Court

Civil

Debtor-Creditor — supplemental proceedings

Section 816.06 does not grant a judgment creditor the right to compel a non-judgment debtor third party to testify at supplemental proceedings.

“We cannot interpret the silence of the statute to create a statutory right. Instead, we conclude that § 816.06 does not grant judgment creditors the right to compel the testimony of a non-judgment debtor third party at a supplemental proceeding. This is so because courts are not entitled to grant or expand statutory rights based solely on a statute’s silence. See Harvot, 320 Wis. 2d 1, ¶50 (holding that the courts should not undertake ‘[a]d hoc judicial discovery of implied statutory rights’); Relyea, 102 Wis. at 303-04 (holding that statutory rights ‘are entirely the subject of legislative discretion,’ not judicial discretion). Therefore, because § 816.06 confers a statutory right to examine witnesses, but does not confer as a part of that right the power to compel their testimony, we decline to infer from the statute’s silence that it grants a judgment creditor the right to compel a non-judgment debtor third party to testify at a supplemental proceeding. Were we to do so, we would legislatively create a right where the legislature chose to remain silent.”

Reversed and Remanded.

2009AP3029 Crown Castle USA, Inc., v. Orion Construction Group, LLC

Gableman, J.

Attorneys: For Appellant: Wagener, Nicholas Andrew, Appleton; Menghini, Michael C., Appleton; For Respondent: Moenck, Nathan, Madison; McLeod, Eric M., Madison