Wisconsin Law Journal – WI Legal News & Resources Wisconsin Legal News & Resources

Jennie Stelter appeals from a judgment which dismissed her personal injury complaint against Green Lantern Restaurant and Secura Insurance with costs, in accordance with a jury verdict. She claims the trial court should have granted default judgment in her favor ...

Improper factors; modification; ineffective assistance Following conviction upon his Alford1 plea to one count of first-degree sexual assault, Richard Hendrickson moved for permission to withdraw his plea and for sentence modification. Hendrickson appeals the order denying his motion. He argues ...

“‘[L]ocated’ should be construed to maintain jurisdictional equality between national banks and state banks or other corporations. In order to maintain this parity, national banks would need potentially to be citizens of two different states, since under 28 U.S.C. sec. ...

Vance R. Stark appeals from a judgment granting Jon A. Haas a default judgment. Because the circuit court did not misuse its discretion by declining to extend the time for Stark to answer Haas’s complaint and entering a default judgment, ...

Joinder and severance; jury instructions Daniel F. appeals a judgment convicting him of first-degree sexual assault of a child and an order denying his motion for postconviction relief. He argues that his conviction should be overturned because (1) the trial ...

“Dye has not cited, and we have not found, any case holding that a mutual release of civil liability is unenforceable under federal law. Federal courts have not embraced the view, see Owen M. Fiss, Against Settlement, 93 Yale L.J. ...

Karen Bammert appeals a judgment dismissing her action for wrongful discharge, claiming that her termination from employment violates public policy. Bammert alleges that she was fired because her husband, a police officer, participated in her employer’s wife’s arrest for driving ...

Speedy trial; presumptively prejudicial delay Pharoah Morris appeals a conviction for armed robbery. He contends that he did not receive a speedy trial, in violation of the Wisconsin and United States Constitutions. We disagree, and therefore affirm. This opinion will ...

“The district court … thought the date of accrual was when the plaintiff discovered he had a medical problem that required attention. This would be correct if the suit were for medical malpractice. … But it is not; malpractice does ...

The Milwaukee Board of School Directors (the board) appeals from an order affirming the findings of the Labor and Industry Review Commission (the commission), which concluded that the board, in violation of the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act (WFEA), unlawfully discriminated ...

Plaintiffs assert, as one argument, that participants in the state retirement system have a property right to have the investment earnings of the fixed trust (the transaction amortization account or TAA) distributed in the manner set by the pre-Act 11 ...

Under [Califano v. Goldfarb, 430 U.S. 199 (1977)], dependency requirements violate the Equal Protection Clause. But [Heckler v. Mathews, 465 U.S. 728 (1984)] recognized that such a requirement may be revived if it is substantially related to a legitimate purpose ...

Thomas and Barbara Volden appeal from a judgment dismissing their complaint against OKK Corporation and OKK U.S.A. Corporation (collectively, OKK). They challenge each of the trial court’s rulings on motions after verdict, particularly as those rulings rest on the trial ...

“There is no dispute that county employees who have passed their probationary period have a protectible property interest in their jobs because state law precludes their discharge without ’cause.’ “Milwaukee County employees also have a property interest in a pension ...

“Wynn alleges that he has been unable to chew his food without his dentures, significantly impeding his ability to eat, and that he has suffered bleeding, headaches, and ‘disfigurement.’ These allegations are sufficient to demonstrate that Wynn has a serious ...

“[T]he only basis on which defendant can defend its effort to collect income taxes from Jackson is his residency. It is the only nexus Wisconsin has. But because that residency is on a reservation, the state cannot use it as ...

“[T]he government argued again that Steward’s holding of the package in his left hand, however fleetingly, the resulting control over it, and dropping it in hope of concealment established possession of it. … The government argues that Judge Murphy’s finding ...

The State appeals an order suppressing evidence that was seized from Jywanza Carter’s home pursuant to a search warrant. As a result of the search, Carter and James Welter were charged with the burglary. The trial court concluded that the ...

“[In Moragne, we] declared a new rule of maritime law: ‘We … hold that an action does lie under general maritime law for death caused by violation of maritime duties.’ Id., at 409, 90 S.Ct. 1772. “As we have noted ...

“Nothing in the statute’s language or background suggests that an illegally returning deportee cannot be convicted unless he knew he lacked the Attorney General’s express consent to reenter. On the contrary, the requirement that the Attorney General’s consent be ‘express’ ...

“In our case, as in Bluffton Castings, the employees’ rights to the monies due, and the precise amount, depend on the collective bargaining agreement. Here, that sum is undisputed. Nevertheless, it remains true that the entitlement to the money due ...

However, we must reverse defendant’s commitment in light of recent decisions which hold that a Ch. 980 commitment petition must be filed within 90 days of his discharge or release; see, for example, State v. Thiel, 2000 WI 67. Defendant ...

“[L]awyers are given considerable leeway in formulating a gender-neutral rationale for jury strikes. … Here, in addition to identifying unique factors that only affected the three struck jurors – unemployment, participation as a plaintiff in a lawsuit, and employment in ...

This is so because the Tax Appeals Commission has held that if a taxpayer fails to file a refund claim within the time prescribed by statute, it lacks subject matter jurisdiction to determine whether the refund claim is valid. “The ...

“In the Civil Rights Act of 1991, Congress determined that victims of employment discrimination were entitled to additional remedies. Congress expressly found that ‘additional remedies under Federal law are needed to deter unlawful harassment and intentional discrimination in the workplace,’ ...

“Mata argues that the trial court was erroneous in finding a factual basis for her forgery pleas because she contends that her conduct did not rise to the level of forgery. Mata claims that her use of aliases when opening ...

“RESPA is the principal federal statute regulating the activities of real estate brokers. The insurance policy at issue is limited to participants in the real estate business and directly addresses potential sources of liability for brokers. Would it not be ...

“Here, the trial court determined that despite Steele’s qualifications under 302.045(2), the seriousness of his offenses precluded his participation in the program. We cannot say that this constituted a misuse of the trial court’s broad sentencing discretion. We therefore affirm ...

“The case for the single-entity approach to calculating an affiliated group’s PLL is straightforward. Section 172(j)(1) defines a taxpayer’s ‘product liability loss’ for a given tax year as the lesser of its ‘net operating loss for such year’ and its ...

Patrick Behrndt appeals from the denial of his motion for relief from the trial court’s judgment dismissing Patrick and approving the settlement as to all other parties. The issue on appeal is whether the trial court erroneously exercised its discretion ...