By: Derek Hawkins//February 20, 2019//
WI Supreme Court
Case Name: The Yacht Club at Sister Bay Condominium Association, Inc.
Case No.: 2019 WI 4
Focus: Court Error – Public Nuisance – Notice of Injury
The petitioner, The Yacht Club at Sister Bay Condominium Association, seeks review of an unpublished, per curiam decision of the court of appeals affirming the circuit court’s order that dismissed its complaint against the Village of Sister Bay. The complaint alleged that some summer concerts held in a public park were a public and private nuisance. Affirming the dismissal, the court of appeals concluded that the Yacht Club failed to provide the Village with a timely written notice of injury and that each concert held by the Village does not constitute a new “event” giving rise to a new opportunity to file a notice of injury.
Before this court, the Yacht Club asserts that the court of appeals erred in failing to view each concert as a new nuisance prompting a new notice of injury period. Thus, in the Yacht Club’s view, it should not be barred from bringing future nuisance actions against the Village simply because it failed to complain within 120 days as required by Wis. Stat. § 893.80(1d)(a) (2015-16) about a noise nuisance from the first concert the Village held in 2014.
We conclude that each concert that is alleged to be a nuisance constitutes a separate event for purposes of filing a written notice of injury. However, because the Yacht Club failed to serve its written notice of injury within 120 days after the date of the last concert alleged to be a nuisance, its written notice of injury was not timely filed. Accordingly, we affirm in part and reverse in part the decision of the court of appeals and remand to the circuit court for further proceedings.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and cause remanded.
Concur:
Dissent:
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