Court Error – Relevancy – Sufficiency of Evidence

Listen to this article

WI Court of Appeals – District IV

Case Name: James Jordan et al v. Jolene Willie

Case No.: 2015AP2636

Officials: Lundsten, Sherman, and Blanchard, JJ

Focus: Court Error – Relevancy – Sufficiency of Evidence

James and Donna Jordan appeal a judgment dismissing their complaint alleging statutory misrepresentation in connection with the sale of a parcel of farm land by Jolene Wille. Dismissal was based on jury verdicts finding that, while Wille made a misrepresentation that her real estate

broker, Beverly Anderson, then repeated to the Jordans, no damages resulted to the Jordans from the misrepresentation. The alleged misrepresentation involved how many acres of the transferred parcel were “tillable.” The Jordans make the following arguments: (1) the circuit court erroneously exercised its discretion at trial by overruling a relevancy objection to the admission of evidence offered by Wille, consisting of a state agency’s definition of the word “tillable;” (2) the court erred in denying a pretrial motion to dismiss the third-party complaint that Wille filed against Anderson; and (3) there was insufficient evidence to support the verdict that the Jordans did not suffer monetary loss as a result of their reliance on the alleged misrepresentation regarding the number of tillable acres. We affirm the judgment for reasons discussed below

Full Text

Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.